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I UNITED STATES OF AMERII 



SERMONS 



SAMUEL WORCESTER. 



MINISTER OF THE NEW CHURCH 



WHO ,WAS BORN IN THORNTON, N.H., AUG. 31, 1793 ; AND TYHO DIED IN BRIDCEWATER, MASS. 
DEC. 25, 1844. 



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v 



BOSTON: 

OTIS CLAPP, 23, SCHOOL STREET. 

1851. 



J3/Z7Z + 



|THE LIBRARY] 
| OT COMPRESS 
IWA8H1N012J1 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 

SARAH "WORCESTER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of tiff District of Massachusetts. 



BOSTON: 

rnrNTBD by john wilsox, 

No. 21, School-street. 



C O N T E N T S. 



SERMON I. 

Tage 
Loye of Reputation. John v. 44 1 

II. 
Afflictions. Rev. iii. 19 13 

III. 
Sickness. Ps. cxix. 71 24 

IV. 
The Heat and Light of the Holy City. Rev. xxi. 23. 38 

V. 

Appearances of Truth. 1 Kings xix. 11, 12 . . . 51 

VI. 

Come, see the Place -where the Lord lay. Matt. 

xxviii. 1—6 63 

VII. 

Parable of the Sower. Matt. xiii. 1 — 9 ... 76 

VIII. 

Why the Lord spake in Parables. Matt. xiii. 10 — 17 . 92 



IV CONTENTS. 

IX. 

Page 
The Parable of the Tares of the Field. Matt. 



xiii. 24—30 



X. 

The Grain of Mustard-seed. Matt. xiii. 31, 32 . . 126 

XI. 

Parable of the Leaven. Matt. xiii. 33 — 36 . . .140 

XII. 
The Treasure hid in a Field. Matt. xiii. 44 . .154 

XIII. 

The Merchant seeking Pearls. Matt. xiii. 45, 46 . 170 

XIV. 

The Net cast into the Sea. Matt. xiii. 47—50 . . 183 

XV. 

The Scribe instructed into the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Matt. xiii. 51, 52 196 

XVI. 

Reception of Truth -with the Natural. Matt. xiii. 

53—58 208 



SERMON I. 



LOVE OF REPUTATION. 

John v. 44. — how can ye believe who receive honor one of 

ANOTHER, AND SEEK NOT THE HONOR WHICH IS FROM THE LORD 
ALONE ? 

The word which is here rendered " honor " is more 
commonly rendered glory. In the twelfth chapter 
of John it is rendered praise, where it is said of the 
rulers, that they did not confess the Lord, because 
they loved the praise of men more than the praise of 
God. 

The natural man is not content with having others 
think of him and estimate him according to his true 
quality or just deserts ; but he constantly seeks to be 
reputed as wiser, better, and more useful than he is. 
He seeks such a kind of reputation as will best pro- 
mote his selfish and worldly ends, and he calls that 
a good reputation. Many natural men wish to be 
thought truly religious men ; but they desire this 
reputation, only that it may aid them in accomplish- 
ing such selfish and worldly purposes as their hearts 
are devoted to. They seek to appear righteous to 
men, but not to be internally righteous ; and, if they 
were placed among persons who had no regard for 
l 



4 LOVE OF REPUTATION. 

even external religion, they would have no love of 
being esteemed religious. Even when religious life 
is in some degree honorable, we see that natural men 
have an aversion to doing such things as would give 
them the reputation of being righteous : they seldom 
perform these things fully, but only enough to meet 
their own views of prudence ; and this has not re- 
gard to what is approved by angels and the Lord, 
but to what is highly esteemed among men. 

The angels look on the interior thoughts and affec- 
tions of men, and not on their words and actions. 
The Lord looks on man's inmost love, and thence 
on the operations of his mind and body. When 
man's internal principles are good, he has glory, 
honor, or a good reputation with the Lord and the 
angels. Man is said to be praised, honored, or 
approved by the Lord, when he internally approves, 
honors, and loves what is of the Lord. When he 
receives, acknowledges, loves, and brings forth the 
Lord's good and truth, then he honors the Lord ; 
and then also the Lord is said to give him honor, 
for he then does what the Lord loves to have him 
do, and approves of his doing. 

He who seeks this honor of the Lord has re- 
spect to being a good man, rather than to being so 
esteemed. His attention is directed, not principally 
to what man looks upon, but to his internal princi- 
ples, which the Lord regards. He seeks to have 
true thoughts and good loves, and to have these 
directed to what is spiritually and eternally useful. 
He is little solicitous merely to please any person on 
earth, even the most intimate friend ; but his object 



LOVE OF REPUTATION. 3 

is to do what will be spiritually useful to others, or 
what they ought to be pleased with, and what they 
will be pleased with when they love good and truth. 
He seeks not honor from men, but seeks to do them 
good. And, if they honor him for his usefulness, he 
refers this honor wholly to the Lord ; knowing and 
confessing, that the will and the power to do the 
good were of the Lord alone. 

The text implies, that those who receive honor one 
of another cannot believe the divine truths. Why 
this is so, is the next object of inquiry. 

The divine truths teach man to forsake all that he 
hath, that he may become the Lord's disciple. They 
teach him that he must have no temporal interests 
that shall be the primary motives of his conduct, but 
must seek first the kingdom of God and his justice. 
Thus they teach him, that he must have no connec- 
tions and alliances with men which will obligate them 
to serve him, and him to serve them, except so far as 
such service will conduce to their spiritual welfare. 

As the divine truths teach these things, they 
require a state of mind wholly incompatible with 
seeking honor one of another, — a state in which 
man will have respect to what is in itself right, and 
not what man may approve and applaud. And, 
therefore, he who looks outward to what men will 
commend, and acts for the sake of their approba- 
tion and favor, cannot be in a state to receive and 
believe the truths which teach him how to live a 
heavenly life. 

That kind of belief in the divine truths which is 
meant in the text is a practical belief, —.such a belief 



4 LOVE OF REPUTATION. 

as is accompanied by doing the truths. A merely 
speculative belief is entertained by some, while they 
seek honor one of another. And such persons often 
suppose themselves to be real believers ; but a little 
observation is generally sufficient to show that they 
are deficient in genuine faith. They are unwilling 
to confess and establish the divine truths as the rules 
of their conduct ; and they seek a good reputation 
by other means than by doing the divine truths. 

They also judge one another to be good, respect- 
able, and honorable men, by the degree in which 
they conform to common principles of moral and 
civil life, and not by the degree in which they for- 
sake all, and follow the Lord. 

When men receive spiritual truths and make them 
the principles of their lives, their views of what is 
honorable, reputable, or respectable, undergo an 
essential change. Those seem to them honorable 
who keep the commandments, and thus honor the 
Lord. That any are highly esteemed amongst men, 
or have a high opinion of themselves, does not indi- 
cate to a spiritual man that they are truly respect- 
able. Judging from the divine truths, he calls none 
respectable who have not such respect for the divine 
truths as to do them. They who seek the honor 
which cometh of the Lord alone, seek it by doing 
whatsoever the Lord commands them ; and they call 
others honorable or respectable in proportion as they 
do the same. They who seek any other kind of 
honor or respectability, seek it by doing what seems 
to them to promote their object ; and they esteem 
others honorable or respectable in proportion as they 



LOVE OF REPUTATION. 

live in like manner. Thus an essential distinction 
exists between two classes of men in respect to what 
is honorable, respectable, or commendable ; and this 
difference is as great as the difference between the 
honor which is of men, and the honor which is of 
the Lord alone. 

Those who desire to receive honor one of another 
are displeased when they do not receive it ; but they 
who seek honor of the Lord are concerned only that 
others should also honor Him. They who seek the 
honor which is of the Lord, cannot render honor to 
others for any thing but keeping the commandments ; 
and this is not satisfactory to those who receive 
honor one of another. They desire to be at least as 
much honored as those who do the truth ; and when 
distinction is made between them and the doers of 
the truth, by which their own deficiencies are mani- 
fested and marked, they feel dishonored, and 
complain of ill-treatment. They claim the rights 
and privileges and honors that are externally 
awarded to doers of the truth, without doing it. 

They who seek the honor which is of God alone, 
cannot account any belief genuine which does not 
become practical ; but those who receive honor one 
of another think themselves entitled to be honored 
as believers, while they hear the Lord's sayings and 
do them not. At the present day, the latter class are 
the majority; and the character of the majority 
generally determines what shall be regarded as 
reputable. They decline going any farther in their 
faith than they can go and still receive honor one of 
another, and devote themselves principally to worldly 



D LOVE OF REPUTATION. 

life. They will receive only so much truth as they 
can use as their self-intelligence. 

We know from the Word, that, wherever the 
truth is taught, there are many who reject it wholly, 
or fail of confessing and doing it, because they love 
the praise of men more than the praise of God. 
They will not renounce that life which is in itself 
opposed to the divine truth ; and therefore they 
cannot cease to desire honor from the opposers of 
the truth. They cannot esteem it honorable, but 
they regard it as exceedingly degrading, to become 
as little children, and call the Lord, Father, and the 
Church, Mother. And, as all truths which are 
taught in the church are designed and adapted to 
lead them into this state, therefore they cannot 
believe. They cannot believe what is so derogatory 
to their self-intelligence and the self-intelligence of 
others, and the honor which is based on a life of self- 
intelligence. They cannot believe what calls nothing 
honorable, reputable, or respectable, but having the 
Lord's commandments and keeping them. 

Those who have been much accustomed to receive 
honor one of another find it very difficult, as they 
advance in religious life, to put away the desire for 
this honor ; and it requires great watchfulness and 
self-denial to avoid seeking it, and to avoid being 
elated by it when it is rendered them. If they will 
carefully observe the tendencies of their affections, 
they will sometimes discover that they choose as 
companions, or are most devoted to, those who are 
in the habit of praising them or flattering them. 
They will also discover, that, when they have done 



LOVE OF REPUTATION. / 

any good thing, they are not quite satisfied with 
seeing that it is useful ; and that they seek by various 
arts to draw from others expressions of commenda- 
tion. 

There are also many, who, perceiving that they 
gain favor with others by flattering them, are accus- 
tomed to applaud their words and deeds to gain 
their favor. The common conversation in parties 
and among intimate friends is so full of this flattery, 
that any one who should shun it would be regarded 
as wanting in one of the essentials of politeness. 
And the sin of flattery, and of the love of being 
flattered, is not limited to things of an external, 
worldly character. We hear men applauded for 
their piety, their self-denial, their spiritual wisdom, 
and their charity ; and there can be no doubt that 
many, when they are praised for these things, love 
and appropriate the honor, and fail of rendering it 
to the Lord. 

Let us endeavor to understand more fully the 
nature and extent of this sin. Suppose that you 
have said or done something that is useful, and some 
one in a flattering manner commends you for it. If 
you said or did it for the sake of fame, honor, gain, 
or any evil end, his flattering approbation gives suc- 
cess and increase to your evil. It also does much 
to make you think that you are as wise or good as 
you pretended to be. It also encourages you to 
continue to do so from the same evil motives. But, 
if what you said or did was from a good motive, the 
flattery makes you, or tends to make you, ascribe 
the truth or good to yourself, and thus steal it 



8 LOVE OF REPUTATION. 

from the Lord. By this means, the truth or good 
which you had received from the Lord, and which 
you had honestly brought forth to do good, and 
which would thus have been appropriated as spiri- 
tual life, ceases to be true or good in you, because 
you ascribe it to yourself. The flattery turns away 
your mind from the Lord, and from the truth or 
good as from Him, and directs the thoughts and 
affections to yourself and your own merit. 

What greater evil can be done to you, than to 
cause you to ascribe to yourself what is of the Lord ? 
This is the direct tendency of flattery, and this shows 
how great a sin it is to give or receive flattery. 

While bringing forth good and truth, and ascrib- 
ing them to the Lord, there is an internal perception 
that it is right to do so, and hence that it is pleasing 
to heaven and the Lord. This perception is given 
by the Lord ; and he who has it has all the honor 
that he desires from heaven and the Lord. But this 
honor is lost, the moment a man suffers himself to be 
flattered. When he receives the praise of men, he 
loses the praise of God ; and, when he has stolen 
the divine truth, by ascribing it, or the good of it, to 
himself, he loses the capacity of believing it as truth 
from the Lord. His mind is closed towards the 
Lord, and opened only towards himself and his 
flatterers ; and then he can have no genuine faith in 
the truth. " How can ye believe who receive honor 
one of another, and seek not the honor which is of 
God alone 1 " 

There is reason to believe, that many are kept in a 
merely natural state by the habit of receiving honor 



LOVE OF REPUTATION. 9 

one of another, and that the spiritual progress of 
those who are in the process of regeneration is greatly 
hindered by suffering themselves to retain this sin. 

There is, however, a kind and degree of approba- 
tion due from men to every one who is a medium of 
good and truth from the Lord. Little children, 
especially, should always be made to understand 
whether what they do is agreeable or disagreeable 
to their parents and teachers. They should not be 
so praised and flattered as to make them vain and 
conceited. But as the Lord gives to his children to 
know what is right and what is wrong, and gives 
them a perception of his approbation when they do 
their duty, so parents and teachers should do to those 
intrusted to their care. They cannot otherwise know 
when they are doing right, nor enjoy the proper 
happiness of doing right ; nor can they know when 
they are doing wrong, nor suffer, to rebuke and 
restrain them, the proper misery of doing wrong. 

A similar kind, though a less degree, of approba- 
tion for right conduct, and disapprobation for wrong 
conduct, is necessary from masters to servants, and 
from rulers to subjects. But, in some cases, as there 
is little need of approbation for good conduct, there is 
the greater need of disapprobation for bad conduct. 
But, in all cases, he who endeavors to do the will of 
another is entitled to know whether he succeeds. 
He needs this for his direction, encouragement, and 
happiness ; and he who withholds it is a tyrant. 

So also some acknowledgment of what we receive 
from the Lord through any medium is due to that 
medium, The medium should not be praised for it 



10 LOVE OF REPUTATION. 

as if it were of him ; but he should be acknowledged, 
loved, and honored as a medium ; and the acknow- 
ledgment, love, and honor should be in proportion 
to the importance of his office, and his fidelity in 
fulfilling his duties. 

This acknowledgment, love, and honor are ren- 
dered principally by thankfully receiving through 
him what the Lord imparts, and making such use 
of it as the Lord intends. We make proper ac- 
knowledgments to our rulers, when we do what we 
can to support them in their offices, and obey the 
laws which they make or execute. "We make a 
good acknowledgment to those who teach us truth, 
when we sustain them in their functions, are atten- 
tive to learn truth from them, and are prompt and 
faithful in doing it. We make a suitable acknow- 
ledgment to all who do us good, when we gladly 
receive that good, impart it to others, do them good 
according to their qualities and offices, and ascribe 
all the good to the Lord. 

When any one receives good or truth from an- 
other, and does not acknowledge, love, and honor 
him as the medium of it, it is scarcely possible for 
him who receives it to avoid ascribing it to himself. 
And this is stealing both from the Lord and the 
neighbor. And, if we carefully consider this matter, 
it will appear that we cannot acknowledge, love, and 
honor the Lord as the source of any good or truth, 
without acknowledging, loving, and honoring the 
medium of it. And hence it is found, when the Lord 
has imparted many goods and truths through any 
medium, that those who have failed to do their duty 



LOVE OF REPUTATION. 11 

to that medium have failed in the same degree to 
receive those goods and truths in such a manner as 
to receive life from them. " He that heareth you 
heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth 
me, and he that despiseth me despiseth Him that 
sent me." 

Those who render this honor which is due to those 
who are mediums of the divine blessings, do not 
receive honor one of another, but seek the honor 
which is of God alone. They honor these mediums 
as the Lord's mediums, and they intend it as honor 
to the Lord ; and each one that receives it should 
render it to the Lord. When this is the case, there 
flows in from the Lord a truth that is perceived as 
saying, " Well done, good and faithful servant ! " 

When any one seeks to impart good or truth to 
others, and he is not acknowledged, loved, and 
honored as a medium of that good or truth, he feels 
as if that good or truth was not rightly received and 
appropriated ; he feels as if they were not made wiser 
and better by what he imparts. It then becomes 
him to search humbly and diligently within himself, 
and among them, for the causes of his failure to be 
useful to them ; and, as fast as he discovers the 
causes, it is his duty to remove all that are in himself, 
and to seek to remove those which he finds in others. 

So far as his efforts to be a medium of good and 
truth are from love of good and truth, he will not 
lose his reward; and, so far as any endeavor to 
make him a good medium, or, by mistake, treat him 
as a better medium than he is, the good and truth 
which they have sought will in some degree be 



12 LOVE OF REPUTATION. 

received. And, if any turn away from him, hon- 
estly supposing him to be a medium, not of good 
and truth, but of evil and falsity, though they will 
lose what they reject, their capacity for receiving' 
good and truth will not thereby be destroyed : they 
may find other mediums through whom they can 
receive it. These remarks do not, however, apply 
to those who reject the mediums of the divine bless- 
ings, from enmity towards those mediums. If in 
this manner they reject the mediums, they reject and 
become incapable of receiving the blessings. So, 
also, any medium, who, from unkindness, withholds 
what he receives from the Lord, ceases to possess it 
and to be a medium of it from the Lord. 

" Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear 
much fruit ; so shall ye be my disciples." 



13 



SERMON II. 



AFFLICTIONS. 
Rev. iii. 19. — as many as i love, i b,ebuk.e and chasten: bk 

ZEALOUS, THEREFORE, AND REPENT. 

The Lord neither does nor permits any thing, except 
for some good end ; and the end which He princi- 
pally regards is the eternal good of each and of all. 
He metes out the portion of every one in infinite 
mercy ; and does all that He can do to save his peo- 
ple and bless his inheritance, to feed them also, and 
lift them up for ever. 

The Lord is equally good to all ; but this does not 
imply that He makes even any two alike, nor that any 
two use the same blessings of the Lord in the same 
manner. As the several members of the human 
body, and the organs or faculties of the mind, differ 
from one another, and are adapted to various depart- 
ments of the general use which all are designed to 
perform ; so the several persons composing a society, 
a larger community, and the whole human family in 
heaven and earth, are different from each other, and 
formed into such varieties as are best adapted to 
promote the welfare of the whole. And, when it is 
said that the Lord is equally merciful or good to 



14 AFFLICTIONS. 

each individual, the meaning is not that He treats all 
alike, but that He does for each one all that He can to 
promote the good of this individual, and to make 
him perform his proper use in the system of human 
beings to which he belongs. There must be as great 
variety in the Lord's dealings with different persons, 
as there is in their characters ; for their wants, or 
the things best for them, are according to their quali- 
ties. 

The various states and characteristics of men re- 
sult partly from their hereditary qualities, and partly 
from what they do as free agents, and partly from 
what others do to them. These influences are so 
numerous that they account sufficiently for all the 
varieties of character and condition which we see or 
know among men ; and, if we were not ignorant 
and short-sighted, we should see that the high con- 
dition of some, the low condition of others ; the 
riches of some, and the poverty of others ; the health 
of some, and the sickness of others ; the long-con- 
tinued life of some, and the early death of others ; — 
that these, and all things else, which constitute or 
produce varieties in the conditions of the people of 
this earth, of the other earths, and of all in the spirit- 
ual world, are equally under the care of the Lord's 
Providence ; and that He adapts to every variety, 
peculiarity, and circumstance of every one's condi- 
tion, that merciful care, government, indulgence, 
and every variety of beneficence, which can do him 
any good. 

If these truths concerning the Lord's Providence 
are acknowledged and kept, in mind, they may help 



AFFLICTIONS. 15 

us to understand the meaning and uses of many of 
the rebukes and chastisements which we suffer in 
this life. Among the severest of these, are the sick- 
• ness and death of our relatives and friends ; and the 
Divine Providence has given us occasion to devote 
our present attention to this class of troubles. 

Diseases, and the pains attending them, are effects 
of human depravity ; and, as children inherit evil pro- 
pensities from their parents, they inherit the causes 
of diseases. Both children and adults produce dis- 
eases by disorderly affections and conduct. 

These facts show that man himself, and the evil 
spirits operating upon him, cause his diseases and 
pains ; and that they are not to be ascribed to the 
Lord, nor to the influence of good spirits. They 
are permitted by the Lord ; but this does no more 
imply that He really produces them, than His permit- 
ting us to sin implies that He is the author or cause 
of our sins. And, considering that men are de- 
praved, it is best for them to be subject to the dis- 
eases and pains which are the natural effects of 
depravity. And it is true, and is very important to 
be acknowledged and remembered, that the Lord 
permits no more of these diseases and pains to afflict 
us than He can make useful to us. It is by permit- 
ting us to suffer in some degree, in this world, the 
proper consequences of our depraved affections and 
conduct, that we are led to repentance ; and it is 
only for the sake of doing us good in this manner, 
and doing such good to those who sympathize and 
suffer with us, that we are permitted to suffer dis- 
eases and. pains. It is only in this sense that the 



16 AFFLICTIONS. 

Lord can be said to rebuke and chasten those whom 
He loves. 

We are not to infer, that all men are rebuked and 
chastened as much as they deserve, nor that those 
who suffer most afflictions are worse than others. 
It is often true that the wicked are less plagued in 
this world than other men ; but, after death, the 
things which had been delightful to them in this 
world are changed into things opposite and afflict- 
ive ; and, in respect to all who try to serve the Lord, 
and do suffer many external and internal afflictions, 
when they come into the spiritual world, their trou- 
bles are changed into things opposite : they have the 
oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise 
for the spirit of heaviness. 

The reason why the wicked are not made misera- 
ble in this world, according to their deserts, is 
because afflictions would not be useful to them. If 
they were stricken any more, they would revolt more 
and more. They would not be melted and refined 
by afflictions, but hardened. But this explanation 
must not be carried beyond the facts of the case. 
The evil do suffer many afflictions in this world ; and 
this is permitted to prevent their becoming so evil as 
they otherwise would, and for many useful effects on 
those with whom they are connected. It is quite 
impossible, and would not be useful to us, in our 
present state, to understand fully the state of those 
around us, and to know why the Lord deals with 
them, or even with us, in the precise manner that we 
see, or think that we see. But it is of great import- 
ance for us to know the general laws of ihe divine 



AFFLICTIONS. 17 

government, and we ought to desire to know all the 
particulars which our states will permit the Lord to 
reveal to us. We ought to seek, and expect to find, 
instruction concerning all things which the Lord 
does concerning us ; and, when we do not find all 
that Ave desire, we ought to believe that some secret 
fault of our own renders us incapable of receiving it 
with advantage to ourselves and others. 

The causes and uses of the sufferings of children 
were explained in a former discourse ; but it may 
not be without use to repeat the explanation. What 
we have now said may, however, suffice to show 
the causes of their diseases and pains ; and we will 
attend only to the uses which may result to those 
who are about to die, from the severe sufferings 
which attend their last sickness. If these uses can 
be understood, we can also see what are the uses of 
other pains to them and to adults. 

As every kind and degree of disease, so every 
kind and degree of pain, are effects of spiritual evils. 
Suffering the pains makes us fear the evils which 
cause them. Though the pains of children cease at 
death, yet the impressions made on their minds by 
those pains remain after death ; and these remains, 
or the impressions made by the pains, are what are 
made useful to them in the other life. 

After death their hereditary propensities to many 
evils remain with them ; and it is useful to them to 
have their evil concupiscences excited, and denied, 
and put away ; for by this, opposite good affections 
are received and implanted. But, when these con- 
cupiscences are excited, they need something to 
2* 



18 AFFLICTIONS. 

admonish and restrain them, lest they should allow 
themselves to bring forth their evils into word and 
action. They are very carefully and kindly watched 
and assisted in these cases by their teachers and 
companions ; but it is often important that something 
within themselves should rise up, and produce dread 
or repugnance as to doing the evils to which they 
are tempted. 

Now, is it not obvious, that, by having the remains 
or impressions brought up which had been produced 
by their pains in this world, they will have fear or 
dread of committing the evils which were the causes 
of those pains ? 

For example : suppose a child to have had the 
hereditary evil which shows itself in quarrelling, and 
endeavoring to beat and injure others. You may 
suppose the child to have indulged this evil while in 
this world, or to have died before the evil came into 
activity. Yet the poisonous, corrupting, and tor- 
menting evil was in the child, and was permitted to 
produce disease and pains and death. These pains 
produced impressions or feelings, and perhaps 
thoughts also, which were stored up and remained 
after death. 

After he came into the spiritual world, he would 
often have his evil passions excited ; and they would 
tempt him to quarrel, and endeavor to injure others, 
as wicked children do in this world. And, when 
thus tempted, the Lord would excite in his mind 
some of those remains of painful feelings which he 
suffered during his sickness. These would be so 
presented to him as to make him fear or dread to 



AFFLICTIONS. 19 

do the evil which was the cause of them. This 
would help him to see that his feelings were evil, 
and would restrain him from indulging them fully, 
and from expressing them, until he had time to con- 
sider, and check himself from better motives. 

The fears which children sometimes suffer during 
sickness may have similar uses as their bodily pains. 
These are fears of injuring others, or of being in- 
jured. They have the same causes as bodily pains. 
And after death, when the child is tempted to com- 
mit the evils that caused them, these may be excited 
in such a manner as to give the impression that there 
is danger in indulging the evil feelings ; and this will 
help to restrain and remove them. 

The remains implanted by the pains and fears 
serve to give the mind internal hints, impressions, 
and admonitions, in respect to the consequences of 
the evils which caused them, when these evils are 
again excited. 

Thus we say that a burnt child dreads the fire ; 
and, although there is no natural fire in the other 
world, yet there is spiritual fire ; and the pains pro- 
duced by being burned by the one may make him 
dread and shun the other. And even the fear of 
being burned, or of suffering other injuries, w r hich 
sometimes attends the delirium of sickness, may be 
used by the Lord to restrain the person from com- 
mitting the corresponding spiritual evil, or falling 
into and suffering that evil after death. 

The pains which we see children suffer excite ex- 
ceedingly sharp pains in us, though not so sharp, 
nor so deep, nor by any means so depressing and 



20 AFFLICTIONS. 

discouraging, as to see them act wickedly. And 
when we know and have full confidence that the 
Lord permits them to bear no more pains or fears 
than He can afterward make spiritually useful to 
them, we find consolation and strength and health 
and happiness flowing together with the loving 
rebukes and chastisements of the Lord. And if 
bodily sufferings for a few days can be made the 
means of saving from the slightest degree of spiritual 
evil and its eternal effects, who will not say that it is 
the Lord's love which permits these sufferings ? 

That some children as well as some adults have 
but little sickness or pain is not a proof that they are 
either better or worse than others, but only that 
the Lord does not see that it could be made useful 
to them. 

Although sickness and its pains, and death itself, 
are to be regarded as things which may be made 
useful to us, yet they are not things which we are 
allowed to desire, seek, or endeavor to produce, in 
ourselves or others. It requires divine wisdom to 
know when these things are best for any one, and 
divine power to make them useful. They are not in 
themselves good ; and the Lord does not do them 
nor permit them as things which He loves. We, 
therefore, are forbidden to love them, or seek to pro- 
duce them. We are required to guard against pain, 
sickness, and death, in ourselves and others. We 
are required to love to have every one in full life, 
health, and happiness. When any one is sick, we 
are to do all we can to relieve his sufferings, supply 
his wants, and restore him to health. 



AFFLICTIONS. 21 

It may seem that when we will and endeavor to 
restore a friend to health, and the Lord wills to re- 
move him to the spiritual world, we are willing and 
acting against the Lord. But this is not so. We 
are then doing what He requires of us, and are there- 
fore doing His will. Even if it is best, and if the 
Lord has so ordered, that any one should die by 
his present sickness, it is also best, and the Lord so 
requires, that the friends and neighbors of this person 
should do all they can to preserve his life. They 
should do this, knowing and truly acknowledging 
that it may be best that the patient should die ; and 
they should be ready to submit to what the Lord 
appoints, and should acknowledge it to be good. 

While they are doing their duty to the patient, the 
Lord and the angels are also seeking to do him 
good. Men act externally ; and the good affections 
which they have, and the efforts which they make 
to do good to the patient, are a necessary plane, 
earth, or footstool, for the heavenly agents to rest 
upon, in order that they may do him good. Even 
natural good affections and offices serve as such a 
rest, support, and foundation ; but when spiritual 
affections operate within, and control the natural, 
the support is far better, and the heavenly agents 
can do more good. 

No friend or physician should feel discouraged, 
nor feel as if the efforts to do good to the patient 
were not useful, even if no pain seems to be allevi- 
ated, and no check is given to the disease. By their 
efforts to do good, they cooperate with those who 
know what is really good for the patient. It is their 



22 AFFLICTIONS. 

duty to acquire and apply all the knowledge they 
can obtain ; but their knowledge is a less important 
plane for the heavenly friends to rest upon than their 
love of doing good. If they are very ignorant, and 
are yet desirous that good should be done, and are 
willing that the Lord should work in and by them to 
do good, they need have no fears for the result, and 
ought not to reproach themselves nor others if the 
patient suffers much and dies. The best good of 
the patient is done. The external good which the 
friends sought is not done ; but the internal good 
which they ought most to have regarded, and which 
seemed the only real good in the sight of the Lord 
and the angels, is done. That internal good consists 
in preparing the patient in the best manner for his 
entrance into the spiritual world, and for his receiv- 
ing and doing in that Avorld the least possible evil 
and the greatest possible good. 

It is commonly observed, that those who have suf- 
fered pains and other afflictions are fond of reflecting 
upon them, and describing them to others. And this 
pleasure which men have in considering their past 
troubles is from a perception — generally very indefi- 
nite — that the troubles have done them good. The 
apostles had a clearer perception of this. They 
said, " No chastening is for the present joyous, but 
grievous; nevertheless, it afterward yieldeth the 
peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are ex- 
ercised thereby." 

This common sense in respect to the use of natural 
afflictions is the effect of influx from the angels who 
better know their uses, and who see them as corre- 



AFFLICTIONS. 23 

sponding to the spiritual pains and troubles which 
attend regeneration. They cannot regard any thing 
that we suffer or enjoy in this life as of much conse- 
quence, except as it will affect our eternal condition ; 
but they see the correspondence of all things that we 
suffer and all that we enjoy, and rejoice in all that 
are adapted to be useful to us in the future life. 

They regard death as birth, — as birth into the 
spiritual world ; and they regard the sickness which 
prepares for death only as preparation for birth into 
the spiritual world. They cannot but regard the 
death of children, and of all who can be made 
happy, as an infinite blessing ; and all the pains and 
sickness which prepare one for being born in a good 
state into the other world, they must regard as bless- 
ings. And if we love and seek the kingdom of God, 
the joy which the angels feel when one is born into 
heaven will flow into us, when our children and vir- 
tuous friends are raised up into eternal happiness. 



24 



SERMON III. 



SICKNESS. 



PS. Cxix. 71. — IT IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN AFFLICTED, 
THAT I MIGHT LEARN THY STATUTES. 

Life in this world, and all things appertaining to 
this life, are designed to form and prepare us for 
eternal life in heaven. Under the wise and merciful 
providence of the Lord, prosperity and adversity, 
pleasure and pain, health and sickness, life and 
death, are for the same end. He is not the cause 
of either natural or spiritual evil in the same sense 
as He is the cause of natural and spiritual blessings. 
He does not afflict willingly ; but afflictions, both 
bodily and mental, are rendered necessary by our 
hereditary and our actual evils. Man, and not the 
Lord, is the author of sin ; and sin is the original 
cause of all " the thousand nameless ills that flesh is 
heir to." These descend from the fathers to the 
children unto the third and fourth generations. The 
Lord seeks, by a perpetual work of salvation, to 
deliver us from these evils, and their consequences ; 
but He cares principally to save us from them inter- 
nally, and thus eternally. Though He pities all our 
sicknesses and sorrows in this life, yet He accounts 



25 



these of extremely little importance, compared with 
eternal misery ; and He therefore permits as much 
affliction of body and mind in the present life as He 
can make conducive to our eternal welfare. 

To some He can make much pain, sickness, and 
sorrow useful ; useful in abating the power of their 
evils, if not wholly effectual in removing them. For 
them it is good to be afflicted. Others would revolt 
more if they were stricken, and therefore fatherly 
reproof and chastisement are withheld. Some can 
be led to remove their evils with little chastisement, 
or little experience of the consequences of those 
evils; and others require severer discipline. We 
may not say that the Lord permits as much affliction 
to each one as he needs ; but He permits as much as 
can be made conducive to the good of the sufferer. 
The afflictions of any person prove not that he is 
better or worse than those who suffer less ; but they 
prove that afflictions may do him good, by removing 
his evils, or by restraining them, and abating the 
power they will have over him after death. 

But the effects of all things that are painful to us, 
as well as of all that are pleasant, are in a great 
degree dependent on ourselves. All are given or 
permitted with the design and desire on the Lord's 
part, that they may do us good ; but it is seldom that 
we so improve them, that we receive all the good 
they are fitted and designed to effect ; and we often 
change the Lord's blessings into curses. 

These are some of the general truths by which 
our thoughts and feelings should be regulated, when 
we suffer or witness any of the pains of this life. 



26 



But few persons, even of those who know these 
truths, have learned well to apply them to the cases 
of disease, suffering, and privation of natural com- 
forts, which frequently occur. It is of great use to 
know how to think of afflictions ; and, if we can 
explain the proper mode of applying to them only a 
few spiritual truths, we may be thereby placed in the 
way of wisdom ; Ave may begin to see the Lord's 
wisdom and mercy in what has been dark and with- 
out consolation, and may afterward learn from the 
daily instructions of His Word and Providence. 

In the Sacred Scripture, those are called sick or 
diseased, whose spiritual life and health are injured 
by evil and false principles. He who is under the 
influence of one class of evil and false principles is 
spoken of as having one kind of disease ; and the 
sickness or disease of each one is named according 
to the particular evils and falsities which produce it. 
These diseases of the spirit produce diseases of the 
body. But men who are spiritually diseased do not 
see themselves so, until their evils and falsities have 
produced states of misery or punishment ; and those 
whose bodies are corrupted and filled with any sort 
of evil life regard themselves as still healthy, till 
they come to the consummation of that state, Avhen 
the evil brings upon itself its proper punishment or 
misery. 

For these reasons the Scripture commonly applies 
the term sickness to those states when the body or 
mind has come to the end of one period or course 
of life, and is suffering the misery of the sins of that 
period, and the pain of changing from that state, 



27 



quality, or order of life, to another. In this sense, 
sickness is a partial death. Death brings to an end 
the whole period of life in the body, and of all things 
belonging to it. It is attended by the pains of put- 
ting off all things of the body and of this world ; and 
it is followed by a resurrection into a new state, or 
life in the spiritual world. Death is generally pre- 
ceded by sickness ; and this prepares the way, by 
gradually dissolving the connection between soul 
and body. Thus, sickness is in these cases, and also 
it is in all others, a partial death. When the death 
is not complete, we often see that a considerable 
part of the body is separated ; and, if the patient 
recovers, he gradually acquires a new body, or a 
new portion of body to supply the place of what is 
taken away. 

Each case of sickness is the death of some part of 
the mind and body. In respect to the mind, we do 
not mean that a part of it ceases to live ; but it ceases 
to live as it had done. A change in its state takes 
place, and it puts off more or less even of the bodily 
covering which it had before. No man, therefore, 
is or can be the same after being sick as he was 
before. Those thoughts and affections, or that part 
of his mind which had been in full operation, may, 
after sickness, be laid almost wholly quiescent, and 
a new set of faculties may be brought into opera- 
tion. When this is not the case, the former princi- 
ples or springs of action are changed, so that he 
thinks and feels otherwise than before his sickness. 
He may be either better or worse ; but he cannot 
be the same man as before. A part of his mind has 



28 



undergone the change which is called death ; and 
a part of his body has actually been put off ; and, 
when he rises again into action, he will go forth 
with a renovated body and in a new state of mind. 

By this partial death, he may have changed from 
a bad to a worse state of mind and life ; or he may, 
by the sickness which is unto death, change from 
mere Avorldly life to infernal life. And, when such 
is the case, every sickness is a partial death of all 
that is good and true in man, and is attended by a 
resurrection into what is evil and false. Thus the 
man becomes worse. 

But this is not the case with those who are ad- 
vancing in regeneration. They go along in the labor 
and warfare of their pilgrimage from day to day, or 
state to state ; and occasionally they come to the end 
or consummation of one state, where they must be 
changed, must cast off much that has constituted their 
life, and receive new principles, or rise into a new 
degree of their former principles. 

These periods are often attended by sickness ; 
probably they are always attended by some degree of 
bodily pain, languor, or violent forms of disease. 
They are also attended by troubles of mind, and not 
unfrequently by changes in one's Avorldly connec- 
tions, property, and occupation. Some kind of 
affliction marks the end of every such state in regen- 
erate life. There are the pains of death and the 
pains of birth ; the pains of putting off all things of 
body and mind which belonged peculiarly to the 
former state of life, and the pains of coming forth 
into the new state, and putting on what is proper to 



29 



it. But, for the greater part, the pains belong to the 
process of putting off, and pleasure attends putting 
on. Death is painful, but resurrection pleasant. 
And, with those who are advancing in regeneration, 
every new state is purer, higher, and better than the 
preceding. The sickness, or partial death, loosens 
and puts off many things that had enslaved the better 
principles of the mind, — puts off something of the 
old man, and gives birth to something of the new 
man. 

We say that it gives birth to something of the new 
man ; for we do not mean to imply that heavenly 
principles are stored in the mind during sickness, so 
as to produce the great changes which often follow. 
As the man is then humbled, something of truth may 
frequently be taught him, while he is sick, that will 
afterward do him good. But the principal effects of 
sickness are produced by bringing into activity such 
goods and truths as had been implanted and appro- 
priated, but had been enslaved by old principles. 
When the life of the old can be brought to a period, 
the new may be elevated into power ; and this we 
call giving birth to them. 

Thus the states of regeneration succeed one an- 
other ; the end of each being a sickness or partial 
death, and the end of the last being a total death. 
But each partial death is only death to some natural 
part or principle ; it is resurrection into some new, 
spiritual degree of life. And the total death, or 
separation from the material body and from all 
worldly things, is a resurrection into a state in which 
only the good principles, or goods and truths of the 
3* 



30 SICKNESS. 

mind, are living and operative. All the evils and 
falsities or disorderly properties of the mind, and 
all that had respect to things of this world, are then 
either wholly removed or laid quiescent in the mind, 
like things forgotten. And then the spirit of the 
regenerate man is opened, and filled with new and 
unimagined measures of heavenly goods and truths ; 
and these are purified and exalted by a perpetual 
resurrection. 

But sickness and all afflictions change our states 
with our own consent ; and the states that follow are 
better or worse, not only according to the quality of 
our previous states, but according to our humility 
and patience in times of affliction. 

Every pain and every irritable or desponding 
sensation which we suffer is but the representative 
and effect of some evil or falsity, or gross quality, 
which the angels are endeavoring to remove from 
us, but which the evil spirits attendant upon us seek 
to retain in us, and which we are not quite willing 
to have removed. 

If we are humble and patient, and desire to have 
the Lord heal us spiritually, all these things that 
afflict us are gradually taken away ; but, if we repine 
and murmur, and long to return to our evil life, 
though our state will be changed, yet our evils and 
falsities will not be removed, and our next state will 
be worse than the former. If the fires of affliction 
do not melt, they harden us. 

Thus far we have spoken of the effects of sickness 
and other painful changes in the states of persons in 
this world, with reference only to the persons who 



31 



suffer these afflictions. But the afflictions of any 
one person have also much influence on others, — 
on those who are so connected with him as to par- 
take of his sufferings. Those of the same family 
may generally be regarded as one body ; and when 
one member suffers, all suffer with it. There are 
also others, with whom almost every person is inti- 
mately connected, whose spirits are allied to his. 
They have similar affections, and similar principles 
of action ; and their interests are so interwoven, that, 
when one is touched, the whole feel it. 

While we live in this world, our spirits are clothed 
with our material bodies, and dwell in them. But 
our spirits are not wholly confined to our own bodies. 
In proportion as we are conjoined in spirit with other 
persons, our spirits dwell in their bodies, and act by 
their bodies ; and, when they suffer from disease or 
any calamity, we suffer with them in proportion as 
we are conjoined to them. "When they suffer the 
pains of death, and their spirits are raised from their 
bodies, we also must in some degree suffer the same 
pains, because our life in their bodies comes to an 
end, — our spirits are separated from their bodies, 
and what of our spirit dwelt with them in their bodies 
must have a resurrection when they are raised. 

Those who understand these remarks may see 
why we suffer so much, when our friends are sick, 
and when they die. In a certain sense, and to a 
certain extent, we also are sick, and we also die. If 
we are willing to undergo the change which such 
sickness or death is designed to produce in us, our 
pains are not very severe ; the attendant angels can 



32 



bear any thing for us which we will permit them to 
bear : but if we make resistance, and refuse to be 
changed and raised, the sickness and death are vio- 
lent and distressing. 

It is commonly observed, that those who have 
most knowledge and love of heavenly life suffer less 
than merely natural persons, when sickness or death 
befalls either themselves or their friends; and, be- 
cause they seem to be less affected by the sickness 
and death of their friends than natural persons are, 
they are often reproached as stoical, or wanting in 
sympathy. Some suppose that they feel as much as 
others, but that they have acquired the power and 
habit of controlling and suppressing their feelings. 
But neither of these suppositions reaches the true 
cause of the difference between them and natural 
persons in times of trouble. They humble them- 
selves, and avoid resisting the change of state and 
the resurrection which accompany the sickness and 
death. They quietly and patiently suffer the Lord 
and His angels to effect that part of the death and 
resurrection which belongs to them ; and such as their 
feelings are in respect to this, such must be their 
feelings in respect to that part which is suffered by 
their neighbor. They love their neighbor as them- 
selves, and bear what relates to his part of the 
sickness and death as they bear their own part. 
When his spirit is released from his body, their 
spirits are separated with it ; and the same angels 
who bear him away, also raise them up, and make 
them partakers of his joy and peace. 

But, when one of our friends is suffering the 



33 



changes Avhich the Lord effects by his sickness or 
death, or which are the real cause of his sickness 
or death, if we resist, and refuse to suffer that part of 
the change which belongs to us, the change must be 
effected by violence, and Avill cause us distress. And 
then it seems as if our pain was merely on our 
friend's account, and we gain credit with the world 
for deep sympathy and affection ; but, in reality, our 
feelings are very selfish, and our troubles are not on 
our friend's account, but on our own. If Ave Avould 
suffer ourselves to be changed as our friend's sick- 
ness is designed to change him, and to rise into a 
higher and purer state, his sickness Avould not seem 
to harm us, nor his death to tear him aAvay from us. 

As sickness and death, and also all afflictions, 
produce different effects according to the qualities of 
men, so the sympathizing friends are affected vari- 
ously, according to their qualities. All have a 
resurrection at death ; but with some it is the resur- 
rection of life, and Avith others it is the resurrection 
of damnation. 

When, by the Avise and merciful providence of 
the Lord, it is made your duty to attend upon one 
Avho is sick, and minister to his Avants, and lend 
your strength for his Aveakness, it then becomes you 
to consider very seriously and attentively Avhy the 
Lord places you in this situation. 

It is not merely because you can be useful to the 
sick person, but also because he can be useful to 
you. You may have as much need of the influence 
Avhich his sickness exerts over you, as he has of your 
services ; and, if his state of mind be such as it 



34 



should be, his good influence upon you will not fall 
short of yours upon him. It is made your duty to 
attend upon him, because you need to partake of 
that change of state which attends his sickness; and, 
if your efforts to bring him out of a state of sickness 
into a state of health be made from the influx of the 
angels about you, you will receive the good which 
you endeavor to do to him. Your efforts to bring 
him into a better state will bring you into a better 
state. While you feel together with him, and en- 
deavor to bear away his pains and troubles, the 
angels can produce that change in you which they 
produce in him, or rather such a change as you 
need to have effected. If the good which you seek 
to do to him proceeds not from any selfish love, but 
from real love of good to your neighbor, you cannot 
fail of being made better by doing it, even if your 
neighbor does not rightly acknowledge and improve 
it ; and if he does rightly receive it, both you and 
he are raised into new degrees of life. 

It is not to be supposed, that the uses of afflictions 
are just in proportion to our knowledge of those 
uses. The Lord does many things for us when we 
do not know even what He is doing ; and the con- 
nection is seldom very apparent between what He 
requires us to do, and the effects which are produced 
within us while doing it. But we should remember, 
that we are all spiritually diseased, and that our dis- 
eases render us incapable of even knowing what is 
best for us. We must take the medicine prescribed 
by our Divine Physician, and administered by our 
faithful friends, whether we can or cannot under- 



SICKNESS. 35 

stand what will be its operation. And when we are 
suffering under bodily disease, or are partaking of 
the sufferings of a friend, we must not be impatient 
nor discouraged merely because Ave see not the use 
of the affliction. To suffer patiently what is allotted 
to us, and to lend ourselves to bear with others their 
afflictions, is essential to receiving the intended good 
of those afflictions, — the good of loosening our evils, 
bringing to an end an imperfect state of life, and 
raising us up into a better state. 

But we must not think it unimportant to obtain 
correct knowledge concerning the causes and uses 
of any affliction. We need at least to know that 
it results in some manner from our depravity, and is 
designed to bring something of our life to an end, 
and give us some degree of resurrection. And we 
should feel that our faithful friends and the attendant 
angels are operating, under the Lord's divine provi- ' 
dence, to bear with us our pains, and make them 
useful to us. 

And those attendant on the sick or troubled have 
special need to know, that their friendly efforts to do 
good to the afflicted are spiritually serviceable in 
effecting the proper change in themselves and in the 
afflicted. And those who act as nurses, instructors, 
or comforters to the afflicted, should take special 
heed that they have spiritual good in view. If they 
have respect to merely temporal healing or any tem- 
poral blessing, the change which is effected in them 
will not be a resurrection into a better state of life ; 
and their influence will sink the afflicted, instead of 
raising him up. 



36 SICKNESS. 

But, if they keep their affections set on heavenly 
good, they Avill be continually rising into a higher 
state, and will bear their suffering friends along with 
them. 

The duty of the friends attendant on the sick, and 
the usefulness of their kindness and care, will appear 
more distinctly, if we bear in mind that the spiritual 
uses of the sickness are effected by the Lord through 
the medium of the angels, and that the angels can- 
not perform their good works without some cor- 
respondent natural operation. They must have 
something to rest upon ; there must be some one 
endeavoring to do external good, in order that they 
may do internal good. As men can do no good ex- 
cept in conjunction with the angels, so neither can 
the angels do good without conjunction with men. 
Hence is the necessity that there should always be a 
church on the earth, in which good is done. It is 
the foundation of the heavens. And the good that 
is done or sought to be done by persons attendant 
on the sick, or by persons performing any other 
duty, is principally serviceable by being an external 
vessel or body into which heavenly good may flow, 
and in which it can operate. 

When, therefore, you are attendant on the sick, 
endeavor so to think and feel and speak and act, 
that the angels can abide in you, and thence operate 
upon the sick. If they have not such an abiding 
place in you, or in some other attendant friend, they 
cannot come down well to the condition of the sick, 
and can do them but little good. But, if your con- 
duct and the state of your mind are such that they 



37 



can dwell in you and operate from you, ihey can 
direct you to do better than you would otherwise 
know how to do ; and what you intend, they can 
effect internally, so far as the patient will permit ; 
and the good which they seek to do to the sick, they 
can at the same time do to you. 

And this shows how great are your responsibili- 
ties, not only while attending on the sick, but at all 
other times. Your mind and conduct are constantly 
mediums or bodies in which the angels or devils 
operate on all around you. If you neglect any 
duty, those around you fail not only of the good of 
that duty, but of the corresponding good which the 
angels would have wrought internally if you had 
done your duty. 

The friends who are attendant on the sick, think 
that they have a simple and sincere desire to be use- 
ful. Let them consider well, that their usefulness is 
really in proportion as they keep themselves in such 
a state that the Lord and His angels can dwell in 
them and operate by them. 



38 



SERMON IV. 



THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 

Rev. xxi. 23. — and the city hath no need of the sun, nei- 
ther OF THE MOON, TO SHINE IN IT ; FOR THE GLORY OF GOD 
DID LIGHT IT, AND ITS LAMP IS THE LAMB. 

The city which is here mentioned is the Holy City, 
New Jerusalem, by which is meant the New Church 
which the Lord is at this day establishing in the 
earth. 

By the sun, when spoken of in a good sense, is 
meant the Lord. He is the sun, and appears as the 
sun of heaven. That sun is, in its essence, divine 
love ; and divine wisdom or truth flows from it, as 
light flows from the heat or fire of the natural sun. 
The Lord imparts His love to angels and heavenly 
men ; and it is in them the love of good and truth, 
which is also called love of the Lord. 

And as the sun means, in the supreme sense, 
the Lord or His divine love ; so, in a lower sense, 
it means that love of good and truth which angels 
and heavenly men receive from the Lord. 

But most of the expressions of the Scripture are 
used both in a good sense and in an opposite evil 
sense. This is the case with the sun and moon, 



THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 39 

which are here mentioned ; and by sun, in that 
sense, is meant self-love, which is the opposite of 
that love of good which the Lord imparts. The 
love of self is the sun which is not needed to shine 
in the Holy City. 

The angels of the middle or spiritual heaven see 
the Lord as a moon. All the angels see Him 
externally, according to what He is within them. 
Those in whom His love is the ruling principle see 
Him as a sun ; but the angels of the spiritual heaven 
receive more of His light or truth than of His heat 
or love, and they see Him as a moon. For this 
reason, the moon signifies the truth proceeding from 
the Lord, and faith in that truth, and the intelligence 
which angels and heavenly men derive from it. 

But, in the opposite sense, the moon signifies 
man's self-intelligence, or that wisdom of the natural 
man which he does not receive and use as of the 
Lord, but as his own. And this self-intelligence is 
the moon which will not be needed to shine in the 
Holy City. 

The reason given in the text, why the Holy City 
will not need the sun and moon to shine in it, or 
why the members of the New Church will not need 
to be directed by their self-love and self-intelligence, 
is, that the glory of God will lighten it, and that its 
lamp is the Lamb. 

By the glory of God is meant the light or truth of 
the Word or Sacred Scripture. It does not mean 
the truths of the literal sense of the Word ; for these 
are called clouds, and not glory. Where the Lord's 
second coming is treated of, it is said that He will 



40 THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 

come in the clouds of heaven with power and great 
glory ; and this glory means the internal or heavenly 
light or truths of the Word, revealed through the 
clouds of the literal sense. 

That these internal truths, which are the glory of 
God, are from the Divine Humanity of the Lord, 
or the Word made flesh, is meant by the declaration 
that its lamp is the Lamb. He is the true Light. He 
is the Truth. 

Those who abide in the merely literal sense of the 
Word, without any heavenly doctrine to reveal its 
heavenly meaning, have nothing but merely natural 
intelligence to direct them in interpreting it. And, 
while exercising their natural intelligence, they also 
exercise their natural loves. Self-intelligence goes 
together with self-love ; for the former flows from the 
latter. And he who is left to derive doctrines from 
the literal sense of the Word by his own under- 
standing, will certainly derive such as accord with 
his own ruling love. He may form such doctrines 
as seem in many respects to require self-denial ; but 
he will not form such as require an essential and 
internal denial of his ruling principles. 

This may be illustrated by reference to the leading 
doctrines of the Romish and Protestant churches. 
The essential doctrine of the pope's supremacy, and 
of the duty of submitting to him in all matters of 
faith and life, is accompanied by many rules requir- 
ing sacrifices and penances. But, for the merely 
external services which it requires, it promises man 
eternal happiness, without removing any evil from 
his heart ; and what it requires of him is accom- 



THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 41 

panied by indulgences, which are quite sufficient to 
keep alive in him all his natural evils. 

So the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith 
alone, requires the external appearance of many 
good works. But, as it denies that these avail any 
thing in respect to salvation, man has no inducement 
to make them internally good. He is not taught 
what works are internally good ; and he is warned 
against relying on any, as being better than mere 
signs of his faith. It is therefore plain, that this 
doctrine, as well as the former, requires no essential 
and internal removal of man's ruling loves. Both of 
them shun the two great commandments, that we 
should love the Lord with all the heart, and that 
we should love our neighbor as ourselves. 

But, in the New Jerusalem, men are not left to 
form their doctrines from the literal sense of the 
Word. The doctrines of this Church are revealed 
from heaven, and are written and printed for the use 
of all who are willing to receive them. Being thus 
revealed, they are not conformed to our self-love ; 
and our self-intelligence has nothing to do but to 
submit itself to their authority. Nothing more is 
necessary, in order that the glory of God may en- 
lighten us, and that our lamp may be the Lamb, 
than that we should turn our minds to these heavenly 
doctrines, and faithfully do, from day to day, the 
truths which we can see to be revealed. 

Every one may for a long time remain ignorant 
of many duties, and many degrees of every duty. 
But, if he endeavors to do every truth that he learns, 
he will soon acquire a strong affection for learning 



42 THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 

the heavenly truths ; and every new truth will reveal 
new duties, and every new degree of truth will 
teach him how to perform his duties more internally 
and fully. And in this way he will learn what evil 
and false principles are in him, and how to remove 
them ; and he will be compelled to deny them and 
put them away, in order to do the truths which he 
learns. And in this way he will become pure and 
wise and holy, as fast as he has any capacity to 
become so. 

Those who have attended to this statement can 
see, that in the New Jerusalem there is no use for 
self-love and self-intelligence : the city has no need 
of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it. The 
glory of God, or the truths revealed from the inter- 
nal sense of the Word, so enlighten it, that our 
natural loves and natural intelligence may be dis- 
pensed with in all cases when we are determining 
our spiritual duties. We need natural intelligence 
to teach us how to perform natural labors; but in 
respect to our spiritual duties, and the Avay to per- 
form natural labors under the direction and control 
of heavenly principles, we need only the glory of 
God to enlighten us. 

Those who have not the heavenly doctrines to 
direct them are accustomed to reason about their 
spiritual and moral duties, and to determine them, 
in the same manner as they reason upon and deter- 
mine the proper modes of cultivating their land, and 
performing their mechanical labors. The spiritual 
degree of their minds is not opened. Natural and 
spiritual things are not sorted and separated in their 



THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 43 

minds ; but they all exist together in a state of con- 
fusion in the natural degree of their minds, and they 
see no essential distinction between natural and 
spiritual duties. 

Tell such a person that he ought to keep the 
sabbath holy, to learn the truths of the Word, to 
pray, to be baptized, to receive the Holy Supper, or 
to perform any other spiritual duty, externally 
or internally; and, if he gives any attention to your 
counsel, he will begin to consult his self-intelligence 
to learn whether that sanctions your counsel. He 
will turn over the many things which he has stored 
in his mind that say it is not necessary or expedient 
to do so. Perhaps, among the rubbish of his mind, 
he may chance to turn up some truth of the Word 
that tells that your advice is good ; but his self-love 
will rise up at that moment, and set him to reasoning 
about it, and you will directly discover that an evil 
will rules his understanding, and renders your advice 
unavailing. 

Now, see how differently truths are treated by one 
who is enlightened by the glory of God, and walks 
in that light. Tell him a duty, and the first thing he 
does is to lay his own will and his self-intelligence 
quiescent. They must have nothing to do as to 
determining whether your advice is good. He looks 
within to his internal mind, and consults the doc- 
trines and truths which are stored there ; and there 
he seeks light from the Lord to show whether you 
have spoken according to the Word. And, when he 
sees that you have told his duty, he acknowledges it, 
and immediately resolves to do it. And, when his 



44 THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 

selfish and worldly principles afterward come into 
exercise, and seek to turn him aside from his duty, 
and to raise obstacles to his performing it, he very 
mildly but resolutely tells them that they are neither 
his masters nor his counsellors. Finding that the 
proposed duty is opposed by his own will and his 
self-intelligence does not make him doubt its being 
his duty ; nor does he doubt it because the self-intel- 
ligence and self-will of any other person oppose his 
doing it. He knows that this will and intelligence 
are always opposed to his spiritual duties ; and 
their opposition, therefore, excites confidence and 
energy in going forward to do his duty. Their 
opposition is an excellent reason for making haste to 
do it. 

When a man is thus prompt and faithful in receiv- 
ing and doing the truth, it is very plain that he has 
no need of the sun or moon to shine in his mind. 
He turns away from them, and seeks only truth from 
the Word ; and, when he receives that, it settles all 
questions. He does not allow himself to doubt nor 
reason about it ; but he employs his rational faculty 
only in explaining and confirming what he has 
seen to be true by a higher faculty. And, regard- 
ing the truth as telling what the Lord's will is, 
he has nothing to do with his own will but to 
deny it. 

This manner of treating the divine truths is so 
different from what is practised by many who are 
called New Churchmen, that some may be led to 
question whether it really is the manner of treating 
them that is required by the heavenly doctrines. We 



THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 45 

can only assure them that it is, and ask them to read 
and satisfy themselves. 

The reason why those who are called receivers of 
the heavenly doctrines do not treat the divine truths 
in the manner we have described, is, that they have 
but just begun to be New Churchmen, and have not 
yet put off their natural habits of treating the divine 
truths. They still suffer their selfish affections and 
their self-intelligence to have great influence with 
them. They have not overcome the world, and 
therefore the habits of the world around them do 
greatly entice them. It still seems to some of them, 
and in a degree to all, as if the Holy City had some 
need of the sun and moon to shine in it, as if there 
were need to exercise their self-love and self-intelli- 
gence. It does not seem to them quite expedient or 
safe to walk simply in the light of the glory of God, 
and to have no lamp but the Lamb. 

But the doctrines of the New Church are not to 
be judged by the conduct of those who profess 
them. Suppose that you judge of the character of the 
Lord Himself, and the instructions He gave while on 
earth by the conduct of His disciples. His first dis- 
ciples regarded and treated Him as if He were to 
establish a temporal kingdom ; and, when all prospect 
of this vanished, they all forsook Him and fled. 
"Were his words less true, or less essential to eternal 
life, because His disciples did not understand them 
and abide in them ? Look at the heresies and the 
wickedness which have been common with those 
who have been called Christians from that day to the 
present ; and will you allow that these are true in- 



46 THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 

dexes of the meaning and spirit of the truths of the 
New Testament ? 

But why do men choose to judge in this manner ? 
Is it not because they find excuses for remaining in 
their sins while they judge of a religion by the char- 
acter of its professors, but they are condemned when 
they come to the truths themselves ? 

It would be unreasonable to expect of the receiv- 
ers of the heavenly doctrines at this day, that they 
should bring the essential truths fully into life ; but it 
ought to be expected of them to acknowledge those 
truths in theory, and to be in the endeavor to do 
them. There ought to be none who know these 
truths, and yet say that it is not expedient and right 
to do them. "When any one knows that he fails of 
doing some of the truths, or certain degrees of some 
of them, he ought not to justify his neglect, and say 
that it is right for him under present circumstances 
to do otherwise than as the truths teach. Let him 
still acknowledge these truths to be the only rule of 
life, and let him make no excuses but what the truths 
make for him. They are very merciful. They take 
into consideration all our weakness, all our imper- 
fections, and all the embarrassing circumstances of 
our condition. They exact nothing of us but what is 
for our good, and nothing but what they will give us 
ability to perform, if we give up ourselves to doing 
them. 

When we see what duties these truths teach us to 
perform, what order they require to be established in 
our families and in the church, if we turn away, and 
say that it is not yet our duty to try to do those 



THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 47 

truths, — that ourselves and the church are yet too 
imperfect for these things, — then it is certain that 
we set up something besides the truths to direct us. 
And what we set up to direct us can be nothing 
but the sun and moon, — our selfish love and our self- 
intelligence. We worship and are directed by them ; 
and this is meant by worshipping the sun and moon, 
which is so strongly forbidden in the Word. 

If man sets up his own will and intelligence to live 
by until he shall be good enough to keep the com- 
mandments, how long will it be before he arrives at 
that state ? 

There are some who do not do all the truths they 
know, but yet do not really set up other principles 
to live by. They are struggling against their self- 
love and self-intelligence, and are gradually loosen- 
ing themselves from their power ; and they do this 
by meditating upon the truths, and doing them in 
small degrees, and thus acquiring more faith in them. 
By such a process the truths in their minds are in 
some degree separated from their natural principles, 
and arranged and combined so as to acquire more 
power. Thus their internal minds are in some 
degree formed, and they are prepared to do exter- 
nally what they have been doing internally. 

Ask such a person why he does not perform cer- 
tain external spiritual duties, and he has little to say. 
He is conscious that it is from the imperfections of 
his state, and he will not raise up a set of natural 
principles to justify that state. He will not attempt 
to prove that he is right in neglecting any duty. He 
will humble himself, and thus prepare to be exalted. 



48 THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 

For such persons we ought to have a very tender 
regard. We should keep near them, and encourage 
and strengthen them. We should carefully distin- 
guish between these, and such as deny that any of 
the truths of the church should be their present rules 
of duty ; for the former have some acknowledgment, 
and are acquiring more acknowledgment, of these 
truths as rules of present duty ; but the latter have 
set up the sun and moon as the objects of their pres- 
ent worship. The former are in the way, and are 
coming, however slowly, into the church and heaven ; 
and there may be with them a process of coming that 
is more rapid and more full than we have eyes to 
discern. Bat those who refuse to do the truths, and 
deny that it is their duty to do them, and defend 
their right to act for the present according to their 
self-intelligence, or any principles not distinctly 
revealed in the doctrines, — such persons are going 
in the opposite direction. And, if their states be 
noticed from year to year, it will appear that the 
truths of the church gradually become merely specu- 
lative principles, and that their practical principles 
are from another origin. 

If we carefully observe the difference between 
these two modes of treating the heavenly truths 
which are revealed for the New Church, we shall see 
the essential cause of all the dissensions in the 
church. But it will not be well for us to set our- 
selves up as judges of others, although we ought not 
to shun the duty of distinguishing between right and 
wrong wherever they are manifested. It is our 
principal duty to apply the doctrine of the text to 



THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 49 

ourselves ; to explore ourselves, and see wherein we 
act from any other principles than the truths of the 
church ; to abase our self-love and self-intelligence, 
and to give up ourselves wholly to the direction of 
the Lord. 

We shall then be in a good state to distinguish 
between right and wrong in others, and their wrongs 
will have no power to lead us astray. Neither shall 
we have any unkind ness towards them on account of 
their wrongs. But we shall stand quietly and hum- 
bly and safely in that relation to all others in which 
we are placed by doing the truth. 

And, when we adopt this course, there will be less 
in our conduct than there now is to bring discredit 
on the doctrines which we profess. We shall then 
adhere faithfully to our Mother the Church, and con- 
form to all the order, and endeavor to perform all 
the duties, revealed by our Father through our 
Mother. And in this way we shall so let our light 
shine before men, that they may see our good works, 
and glorify our Father in the heavens. 

Another caution is necessary. It is possible to 
devote ourselves very fully to learning and doing the 
truths which are revealed, and yet to call those truths 
our own, and to do them as if they were our opin- 
ions instead of the Lord's words. In that case, we 
become proud, and thank God that we are not as 
others. In doing His truths, we have too much, 
respect to self, and desire the honor of doing well. 
We do not keep in mind that the truths which we 
know and do are of the Lord ; and, in doing them, 
we do not worship and serve Him. 



50 THE HEAT AND LIGHT OF THE HOLY CITY. 

That our actions may be really good, it is essential, 
not only that they should be done according to truth, 
but that they should have respect to the Lord. 
Every act should be an acknowledgment of Him, — 
an acknowledgment of Him as the Truth and Good 
and Power from which we act. We thus avoid 
making His truths our own intelligence ; and then it 
is truly His glory that enlightens us, and our lamp is 
the Lamb. 



51 



SERMON V. 



APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 
1 Kings xix. 11, 12. — and he said, go forth, and stand upon 

THE MOUNT BEFORE THE LORD ; BEHOLD THE LORD PASSING BY. 
AND A GREAT AND STRONG WIND RENT THE MOUNTAINS, AND 
BRAKE IN PIECES THE ROCKS BEFORE THE LORD : THE LORD WAS 
NOT IN THE WIND. AND AFTER THE WIND AN EARTHQUAKE I THE 
LORD WAS NOT IN THE EARTHQUAKE. 
AND AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE A FIRE '. THE LORD WAS NOT IN THE 
FIRE. AND AFTER THE FIRE A SMALL VOICE OF SILENCE. 

The divine good and truth, as they are manifested to 
natural men, appear very differently from what they 
do in the heavens. Men see them together with the 
effects which they produce in this world : thus they 
see them in connection with all the opposition that is 
made to them by wicked men, and by the evils and 
falsities in their own minds. The strife and confu- 
sion which result from opposition to good and truth 
seem to natural men to be caused by the good and 
truth. So it seemed to the Jews, that the Prince of 
Peace was a seditious person, and that Paul and 
Silas turned the world upside down. 

It is not difficult to see, that, in such cases, all the 
noise, harshness, and contention that are made, orig- 



52 APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 

inate in the evil and false principles of men, and not 
in the goods and truths revealed from heaven to 
men. Those who are made truly rational can also 
see that there cannot possibly be in the Lord, nor in 
the good and truth proceeding from Him, any thing 
of anger, harshness, or a spirit of contention ; but 
that all is love, mildness, and peace. And they can 
see that all things in the Sacred Scriptures which 
ascribe to God any thing of severity, revenge, or 
any thing but mercy and peace, are but representa- 
tives of the manner in which He, and His good and 
truth, appear to those whose evil and false principles 
are opposed to Him and His Word. What has 
here been said may be illustrated by facts respecting 
sound. 

When sound is in the higher and purer regions of 
the atmosphere, or in any place from which the 
dense atmosphere is withdrawn, it is very slight, 
tacit, or almost imperceptible. But when sound 
descends from a pure, thin atmosphere into one that 
is gross or dense, it becomes louder and harsher. 
So the divine truth and good, as revealed by the 
Lord in the pure regions of the higher heavens, are 
soft, gentle, and pacific. They there produce no 
disturbance, for nothing opposes them. But, as 
they descend into the lower heavens, and through 
these into this world, they seem harsh, dictatorial, 
thundering, imprecating, and tumultuous, in propor- 
tion as they meet with what is not in perfect agree- 
ment with them. 

This is what was represented to Elijah by what is 
recorded in our text. That he might understand 



APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 53 

these things, he was commanded by the Lord " to go 
forth, and stand on the mount before the Lord, and 
behold the Lord passing by." 

When he received this command, he was in a 
cave of the mountain. By the mountain is signi- 
fied good, or an elevated state of spiritual life. 
But a cave within a mountain is a dark place : light 
is excluded from it, and it receives but little heat. 
It therefore corresponds to a very imperfect state of 
good, — a state in which man has some love of know- 
ing and doing his duty, but scarcely knows what is 
his duty. But, because he is willing to be instructed, 
the Word of the Lord comes to him, and commands 
him to go forth from the cave, and stand upon the 
mountain, where light is manifested, and where he 
can understand how the divine good and truth flow 
into, and operate in and by, the various classes of 
angels and men ; and why they appear differently, 
and produce different effects, in the different classes 
of angels and men. 

It is necessary to be in a state of heavenly love, 
and in the light thence derived, in order that these 
things may be well understood. The mind must be 
in a state above the spiritual clouds and darkness 
and tempests and confusion which attend the descent 
of divine good and truth, in order that . the true 
causes of these things may be clearly known. The 
man or angel who will know these things must be 
on a mountain above them, so that he will " see 
Jehovah passing by him," in descending to the 
regions where these things are produced ; for, while 
the thoughts and affections belong to the region 



54 APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 

where these things exist, they cannot be compre- 
hended. 

" And a great and strong wind rent the mountain, 
and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord : the 
Lord was not in the wind." 

The term spirit signifies breath or wind. The 
Holy Spirit is the Divine Breath, proceeding from 
the lungs of the Divine Man. And as human speech 
or words are expressions or forms of the human 
breath, so the Divine Word, as it is on earth and as 
it is in the heavens, consists of the expressions and 
forms of the Divine Breath, — the Spirit of Truth, 
or Holy Spirit. 

As this Spirit proceeds from the divine lungs, it is 
infinitely pure, soft, and gentle ; but, when it is com- 
municated among angels and men, it meets with 
their opposing qualities, and is clothed with their 
spirit ; and hence it sometimes appears and operates 
as a raging wind, instead of a gentle breathing. 

When the Lord revealed his words on Mount 
Sinai, and there were thunders and lightnings and a 
thick cloud on the mount, these effects did not indi- 
cate the quality of the pure words which he spake, 
but of the people who received them. When the 
Lord dwelt among men in a material body, and 
spake to them words at which they were angry, 
and on account of which violent excitements, tem- 
pests, and confusion existed among them, these 
things could not be properly ascribed to the spirit of 
His words ; for this was divinely gentle and merciful. 
And we sometimes see among men, that the purest 
and calmest language produces the most violent 



APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 55 

opposition, and the most raging wind or spirit of 
clamor, rebuke, and persecution. But, in all such 
cases, we know that these effects are attributable to 
things gross, evil, and false in those to whom the 
truth is addressed. It is this spirit, and not the spirit 
of truth, which is in these effects. 

This remark applies not only to the excited, noisy, 
and tumultuous spirit of those who oppose the truth, 
but to the spirit of those who, in low states of mind, 
embrace and teach and defend it. There are gross 
and opposing principles in the minds of those who 
have not been purified by the truth ; and, when they 
are fighting and renouncing these, their confession 
and defence of the truths are loud and vehement. 
While the pure Divine Spirit is rending the moun- 
tains of man's evil loves, and breaking in pieces the 
rocks of his falsities, man perceives the quality of 
the Spirit by these effects ; and it seems to be a great 
and strong wind. 

But the Lord is not in the wind. The Lord is 
said to be in that only which is from Him. We 
have seen that Ave ought not to ascribe the raging 
wind or spirit to the Lord. It originates in man's 
gross and impure qualities. But the same man who 
externally excites, and is excited by, this wind, may 
internally have only the gentle operations of the 
Spirit of Truth. As this gentle and pacific Spirit 
descends from the internal degrees of the mind into 
the external and gross degrees, it becomes noisy, 
harsh, and impacific. We may then say that the 
Lord is not in that stormy wind, but that He is 
within it. His Spirit is the interior cause ; and this, 



56 APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 

descending, produces effects that are different, ac- 
cording to the qualities of those in whom the Spirit 
operates, or to whom the Word is revealed. 

When we notice the noisy eloquence and violent 
action of one in the first state of regenerate life, we 
ascribe those things to the gross qualities of his 
natural mind ; and we think, that, within this noisy 
zeal, there is something better ; and we expect, that, 
when his natural mind is regenerated, the Spirit will 
descend with gentleness and peace, — will descend 
in bodily shape like a dove. 

" And after the wind an earthquake : the Lord 
was not in the earthquake." 

The first changes effected by the truth, as it 
descends among men, relate to thought, speech, 
instruction, and doctrine. These are from the 
breath, and they are meant by the great and strong 
wind and its effects. The evils of self-love and love 
of the world are assailed by the truth, and the effects 
are represented by the rending of the mountains : the 
principal falses grounded in these evils are detected 
and dissipated, and this is meant by breaking in 
pieces the rocks. Next follows the shaking and 
demolishing of those things which belong to the 
actual life. We see the effects of this when man 
turns against the religious institutions which he had 
formerly supported, abandons the habits of life which 
he had cherished, and forsakes the friends of his 
worklliness, that he may be the Lord's disciple. 
This shaking of the very ground of his own mind, 
and the effects thereby produced in the community, 
are meant by the earthquake. 



APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 57 

By such changes in the states of individuals, the 
political and religious institutions, occupations, and 
characters of whole societies and nations, are essen- 
tially changed. And these changes are not effected 
without violence and confusion. Old things cannot 
be removed, and all things be made new by the 
Word of the Lord, without there being great distress 
in the land, and wrath among the people. And, in 
proportion as men have within them what must be 
put away, and are unwilling to put it away, they 
will ascribe the violence, agitation, and distress to 
the truth itself; but it ought to be ascribed to those 
things, in themselves and others, which oppose the 
truth. Themselves, and not the Lord, are in 
the earthquake. Were it not for the wrong quali- 
ties in themselves, there would be no such agitation 
and distress, when the divine truth descends among 
them. 

" And after the earthquake a fire : the Lord was 
not in the fire." 

When the wind and the earthquake produce their 
accustomed effects in any mind or any community, 
there is always much fire following them. Those 
who persist in evil life are made angry. Those Avho 
attempt to reform, but are in external states of mind, 
manifest a burning zeal for the cause of truth. The 
divine love of saving them from sin operates in the 
inmost degrees of their minds, and produces love of 
shunning" evils as sins, and of imparting the Lord's 
good and truth to others. This is the fire of genuine 
charity. But, as it descends into and through the 
externals of the mind, and is imparted to others, it 



58 APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 

is met and opposed by falsities proceeding from 
opposite fires. These it has occasion to burn up, 
and hence there is smoke. And this burning from 
opposite loves causes a great deal of fire. The most 
raging part of it is that which results from the zeal 
of natural affections to preserve the objects to which 
they are devoted, and their own lives. 

But it is very plain, that the love which is of the 
Lord has no tendency to destroy, but to save. 
Destruction comes from opposition to it. He is 
infinitely loving and merciful to the evil as well as 
the good ; but, where His love descends by His 
truth, it seems to the wicked that a fire goeth before 
Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. 
The destruction is from their opposition ; and the 
destroying fire which they perceive, and from which 
they suffer, is in their own breasts, and not from the 
Lord. The Lord is not in the fire. But, as far as 
possible, He reigns within it, and prevents its destroy- 
ing what is not opposed to Him. And, when the 
opposing loves of man are subdued, removed, and 
are succeeded by heavenly loves, then the final 
warfare is ended. The divine truth then comes 
down into the lowest degrees of the mind, and goes 
forth thence in word and deed, without any great 
and strong wind, or any earthquake, or any raging 
fire. 

" And after the fire a small voice of silence." 
This indicates the state of tranquillity and peace 
which follows the combats of the states of regenera- 
tion. It is the sabbath succeeding the six days of 
labor. It is that celestial state in which audible 



APPEARANCES OP TRUTH. 59 

language is little used. There is a simple yea, yea, 
and nay, nay ; but thoughts and affections of all 
kinds are expressed by changes of the countenance, 
by modulations but not articulations of the voice, 
and by doing what is thought and felt. 

Every one who is ever in a state of union and 
peace with any other, knows that their thoughts 
and affections can be interchanged with but little 
talk, and without any declamation or eloquent 
speeches. And the more pure and heavenly and 
full the thoughts and affections are, the more inade- 
quate is common language, and the less is it needed, 
to express them. 

When man's own will and his own intelligence 
are quiescent, and he dwells in the Lord, and thinks 
and wills from the Lord, there is no wind, no earth- 
quake, and no fire, except with those who oppose 
him. His doctrine drops as the rain, his speech 
distils as the dew. It is only when he partakes of 
the sphere of those in lower states, and his own 
natural principle is excited, that his expressions 
become noisy and turbulent. 

Who does not know, that a whisper is designed 
to express what is so interior that it is unfit for loud 
language ? Who has not noticed, that, when he 
enters into his closet, and shuts the door, and .prays 
to his Father in secret, he needs not cry out to Him 
as if He were asleep, or had gone a journey ? And 
who that has any sense of the humility of heavenly 
decorum is not troubled and grieved by the boister- 
ous harangues of the prayers of sensual men ? 

The Holy Spirit of Truth is perceived by man, as 



60 APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 

making impressions within the mind, and not as 
speaking to it. Its voice is not audible as being 
uttered out of the mind, and flowing into it ; but it is 
only perceptible as within it. And when the same 
Spirit seems to be communicated through the me- 
dium of any teacher or friend, it is not perceived as 
belonging to the articulate sounds of his voice, but 
as being within them, and as belonging to an internal 
atmosphere. In either case, it is a still, small voice, 
or a small voice of silence. And, when we are 
hearkening to this voice, we desire that all the earth, 
or all external things, may keep silence. 

It is not said in the text, that the Lord was in this 
small voice ; but every one knows that this is the 
meaning. That very voice of silence teaches it. 

What we have said throughout this discourse is 
designed to show how differently the Divine Word, 
or Spirit of Truth, appears to persons in different 
states of mind. And to those who are standing upon 
the mountain, and behold the Lord passing by, and 
can understand the apparent changes of His truth, 
as it descends even to evil men, it becomes quite 
manifest that the Word is so written as to exhibit 
all these apparent changes. In its lower senses, it is 
clothed with the appearances arising from man's 
thoughts and affections. And it is on this account 
that many parts of the Word speak of God as an 
arbitrary and revengeful monarch ; and that heaven 
and the way of life, and also hell and the way of 
death, are described in the literal sense as they 
appear to the natural man. In order that the Word 
may communicate to man any ideas concerning these 



APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 61 

things, it must express its truths in forms accommo- 
dated to man's state of understanding. 

Men in different states see different meanings in 
the same words of the Scripture ; and the Word is 
so Avritten that it is adapted to the states of all natu- 
ral men, and to all the states of those who are 
ascending in regenerate life, and all the states of 
those who stand upon the mountain and behold the 
Lord passing by. 

It is not strictly true, that the divine truths are 
changed in their quality as they descend, and are 
adapted to persons in different states. The appear- 
ance is, that they are changed or modified ; and it is 
common in the Word, in the writings of Sweden- 
borg, and in religious discourse, to find expressions 
which imply such a change. But the man himself is 
not changed by his clothing. The light of the sun 
is not changed by the several atmospheres through 
which it descends, nor by the glasses through which 
we see it. These things present the light to the eye 
under very different appearances, and by this means 
they affect our view of the objects from which the 
light is reflected. But the quality of the light itself 
is not changed, whether we receive little or much of 
it, or whether it is presented in one manner or 
another. 

So the spheres of angels and men through which 
the truth descends, and the thoughts of their own 
intelligence through which they see it, do not change 
the truth itself, though they present it under innumer- 
able forms to the understanding. And although 
the various appearances of truth are used in Scrip- 



b2 APPEARANCES OF TRUTH. 

ture lo clothe it and accommodate it to angels and 
men in their various states, yet the genuine truth 
is within all these appearances, and remains as 
unchangeable as God. And though the impure 
exhalation from the minds of men shroud the Sun 
of Righteousness in such thick darkness that He is 
wholly invisible to them, yet that darkness hideth 
them not from Him, but the night shineth as the 
day. 



63 



SERMON VI. 



COME, SEE THE PLACE WHERE THE LORD LAY. 
Matt, xxviii. 1 — 6. — but at the evening of the sabbaths, at 

THE DAWNING INTO ONE OF THE SABBATHS, CAME MARY MAGDA- 
LENE AND THE OTHER MAEY TO VIEW THE SEPULCHRE. 

AND, BEHOLD, THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE ; FOR THE ANGEL 
OF THE LORD, DESCENDING FROM HEAVEN AND COMING, ROLLED 
AWAY THE STONE FROM THE DOOR, AND SAT UPON IT. 

AND HIS COUNTENANCE WAS AS LIGHTNING, AND HIS RAIMENT 
WHITE AS SNOW. 

AND FOR FEAR OF HIM THE KEEPERS DID SHAKE, AND BECAME AS 
DEAD. 

BUT THE ANGEL ANSWERED AND SAID TO THE WOMEN, FEAR NOT 
YEJ FOR I KNOW THAT YE SEEK JESUS THE CRUCIFIED. HE IS 
NOT HERE ; FOR HE IS RISEN, AS HE SAID. COME, SEE THE 
PLACE WHERE THE LORD LAY. 

There had been several churches on the earth before 
the Lord came, and glorified His Humanity. The 
Jewish church was the last ; and the end of this, 
which occurred when the Lord was glorified, was 
the consummation of all the dispensations of truth, 
and modes of redeeming and saving men, without 
the medium of this Humanity. 

This end of all former dispensations and churches 
is meant by the evening or close of the sabbaths ; 
and the beginning of the communication of that light 



64 COME, SEE THE PLACE 

from the Divine Humanity, by which the Christian 
church was to be formed, is meant by the dawning 
into one of the sabbaths. The Christian church was 
not to be formed at once in fulness and perfection : 
it was to consist of successive churches, having dif- 
ferent degrees of light from the Word. Hence, this 
dispensation, and the church formed from it, are 
spoken of in the plural ; and the " dawning into one 
of the sabbaths" has particular respect to the first 
Christian dispensation, and signifies the first degrees 
of truth then revealed. 

At the end of one church and the beginning of 
another, they who have an affection for good, and 
they who have an affection for truth, seek knowledge 
concerning the Lord, and regeneration, and resur- 
rection into life. This is signified by its being said, 
that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came 
to view the sepulchre. Mary Magdalene and the 
other Mary are the affections of good and truth, or 
they are spoken of as representing all persons who 
have such affections. 

The Lord's sepulchre signifies the Lord's glorifi- 
cation, and also man's regeneration and resurrection 
into life. When man dies, and his body is laid in 
the grave, the angels do not think of these things as 
they relate to this world and man's temporal life, but 
as they relate to the spiritual world and to man's 
eternal life. They see his death as birth into that 
world, and life in that world. 

Laying the natural body in a grave or tomb is, to 
them, rising into the spiritual world in a spiritual 
body. And, as the Lord became fully glorified 



WHERE THE LORD LAY. 65 

when He was laid in the sepulchre, therefore the 
angels understood this by the sepulchre, and by His 
being laid in it. And, as man's regeneration and 
resurrection into life are the things for the sake of 
which the Lord was glorified, these also are signified 
by His death, by His being laid in the sepulchre, and 
by the sepulchre itself. 

To come to view the sepulchre is to draw near 
from affection to learn the truths which teach con- 
cerning the Lord's glorification, and man's regene- 
ration and resurrection into life. This is done by all 
who are in affections of good and truth, at the end 
of every church and the beginning of every new 
church, — at the end of the sabbaths, at the dawn 
into one of the sabbaths. 

" And, behold, there was a great earthquake ; for 
the angel of the Lord, descending from heaven and 
coming, rolled away the stone from the door, and sat 
upon it." 

By the great earthquake is signified the change in 
the state of the church, when former things are 
abolished, and all things are made new. 

By the descent of the angel is meant the proceed- 
ing of divine truth through the heavens from the 
Divine Humanity. By his rolling away the stone 
from the door of the sepulchre is signified the re- 
moval of the falsities which had obstructed the 
way to Him. He thereby opened the sepulchre. 
It was only the evils and falsities of men which 
crucified Him, and placed and concealed Him in 
the sepulchre ; and the opening of the sepulchre is 
removing what conceals Him from men, thus the 



66 



COME, SEE THE PLACE 



falsities which had concealed Him and all heavenly 
things. 

That the angel sat on the stone implies that the 
divine truth has abiding or permanent power over 
falsities. This stone was what had closed the 
sepulchre. By this sepulchre was represented resur- 
rection and regeneration, and the glorification of the 
Lord's Humanity. When the Lord was fully glori- 
fied, He opened these subjects so that men could 
understand them : He removed what had concealed 
them, and had permanent dominion over it. The 
door is opened at the beginning of a church to the 
knowledge of the Lord and of the Avay of life. 

It is said of the angel, " His countenance was as 
lightning, and his raiment white as snow." 

By lightning is signified the sparkling and splen- 
dor of divine truth. The countenance being as 
lightning, therefore, denotes the love of truth ; for 
truth which is from love brings with it a flaming 
principle derived from fire, which principle is light- 
ning. A. C. 8813. 

Raiment signifies truths ; hence the garments of 
the angels correspond to their intelligence. The 
spiritual angels are clothed in white garments ; the 
celestial appear in shining garments, varying in color 
according to the quality of their loves. 

That Ave may be taught who the Lord is, and how 
He glorified His Humanity, and how He is exalted, 
and also how man is regenerated and raised up into 
heavenly life, we must have a genuine affection for 
good and truth ; and then the celestial and the 
spiritual angels will descend to our minds, and 



WHERE THE LORD LAY. 67 

remove the falsities which close or conceal these 
things, and will instruct us concerning them. And, 
though we do not see them personally, we shall see 
the light and feel the love with which they are 
enlightened and vivified. 

" And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and 
became as dead." 

When heavenly truths are revealed, they execute 
a judgment. Those who do not love them are 
thrown by them into all sorts of troubles. The 
keepers of the sepulchre are those Avho teach false 
doctrines and defend them, and thereby prevent men 
from entering into the true doctrines of the Word. 
They shut up the kingdom of God, and neither enter 
themselves nor suffer others to enter. They are 
unwilling that men should know any thing of the 
Lord, and of life from Him. They crucify Him, 
and seek to keep Him dead and buried. They kill 
Him, and keep His sepulchre. 

This was literally done by the Jews, and is spirit- 
ually done by men at this day. It is within the 
memory of many of us, that the teachers of false 
doctrines sought to deter men from inquiring con- 
cerning the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity, of 
regeneration, of resurrection, and of the state of man 
after death, by saying that these things were holy 
mysteries which men could not understand, and 
ought not to wish to know. Thus they enclosed the 
Lord in a sepulchre, and sealed it, and set a watch. 
And when the revelations which have been made 
to the New Church were manifested to them, for 
fear of them these keepers of the sepulchre did 



68 COME, SEE THE PLACE 

" But the angel answered and said to the women, 
Fear not ye ; for I know that ye seek Jesus the cruci- 
fied." 

Those who have an affection for truth and good 
are taught by the Lord's Spirit that they have no 
reason to fear learning the heavenly truths that are 
revealed. Many are found to try to dissuade them ; 
but, if they really seek Jesus the crucified, they are 
encouraged and strengthened till they find Him. 
Jesus the crucified becomes to them Jesus who is 
raised up, glorified, and exalted as head over all. 
To those who have despised and rejected and slain 
Him, and who continue so to treat Him, He is cruci- 
fied, and remains in the sepulchre, or they know not 
where ; but, to those who repent of their sins and 
seek salvation from the Lord, He manifests Himself 
in His glory, and fills them with His life. To them 
He was dead, but is alive again, and fives for ever- 
more. 

Such persons, when they read of the Lord's death 
or crucifixion, do not think of Him as having been 
dead, as others think of His death. They think of 
His having put off a natural body, and put on a 
divine body. Thus they think of Him as having 
been made more alive, rather than as having lost 
any life. And they think of His sepulchre as only 
the gate of entrance into His glory. 

" He is not here ; for He is risen, as He said. 
Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 

To those whose minds are filled with false princi- 
ples, all truths proceeding from Him are destroyed 
or perverted ; and with them and by them the Lord 



WHERE THE LORD LAY. 69 

is crucified, and enclosed in a sepulchre formed of 
their false principles. Others have their minds filled 
with merely Avorldly knowledges, which teach them 
nothing of spiritual life, but only how to live from 
selfish and worldly loves. These also bury the 
Lord, or entomb all the truths they receive from 
Him within their worldly knowledges. 

But with those who seek Jesus, — who seek to be 
saved from their sins, — He is not here concealed in 
such sepulchres. He is risen. He is risen in them 
out of such sepulchres, and is exalted into the hea- 
vens and above the heavens of their minds. And 
this is the only resurrection which gives man eternal 
life: it is the resurrection, ascension, exaltation of 
the Lord, or of those truths and goods which the 
Lord imparts, so that these live and reign in the in- 
ternals of the mind, and give direction and life to the 
whole man. 

What advantage is it to you that Jesus rose from 
the sepulchre where the Jews laid Him ? If you 
continue to treat as they did what He teaches in 
His Word, and does in His Providence, He is, in 
respect to you, crucified, dead, and buried. That 
He did rise is not what you ought to seek to know, 
and be satisfied with believing ; but you need to 
know that He has risen in you, and is constantly 
receiving a more full resurrection in you. Mark 
well whether His truths are the lights and the undis- 
puted guides of your conduct, and whether His love 
of saving you from sin has become your love of 
shunning all evils as sins. And if you find this to 
be so, then in you the Lord has risen indeed. You 



70 COME, SEE THE PLACE 

are raised from a life natural and evil to a life spiri- 
tual and holy. You are raised out of your own life 
into His life. Blessed and holy is he that hath part 
in this resurrection. 

" Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 
That you may be more humble before Him, look 
at the sepulchre in which you have laid Him during 
many and long periods of your lives. Look at the 
falsities and evils by which you have rejected and 
perverted His truths, and the self-intelligence and 
worldliness which have kept buried the remains of 
good and truth you have received from Him. And 
if it be a reality that the revelations now made for 
the New Church have rolled away the stone from 
the door of the sepulchre, and that ye seek Jesus, 
then no longer seek the living among the dead. No 
longer seek in natural things the life and the happi- 
ness which are proper to immortal beings, but seek 
first the kingdom of God and his justice. Know 
and acknowledge that He is risen. Look upward, 
above the sphere of natural thoughts and affections, 
and see and perceive the truth and good imparted 
by Him in the internals or heavens of your minds ; 
and worship Him there, and bring down these truths 
and goods as the principles and life of all your words 
and works. 

The enemies of the Lord were not satisfied with 
simply murdering Him ; but, by enclosing Him in a 
sepulchre, and sealing it, and setting a watch, they 
sought to guard against His resurrection. This, 
therefore, was their last act of cruelty ; and it in- 
volved all the opposition they had showed Him from 



WHERE THE LORD LAY. 71 

the beginning. It is common in the Word, that, 
when the first or the last act in a series is mentioned, 
it involves the whole. When, therefore, we see the 
place where the Lord lay, we see all that His ene- 
mies did to Him, and all that He did for the redemp- 
tion of men. We see how we have treated Him, 
and what He has done for us. 

We have treated Him as we have treated His 
truths ; for He was and is the Word. All that we 
have done in opposition to His truths has been reject- 
ing and crucifying Him ; and all we have done to 
cover up, hide, and keep His truths dormant in our 
minds, after having known them, has been enclosing 
and securing Him in a sepulchre. 

What we have done to those who receive and 
teach and do His Word, has also been done to Him. 
So much as we have done to one of the least of 
these His brethren, Ave have done to Him. If we 
have rejected their counsels, degraded their charac- 
ters, withheld from them proper encouragement and 
cooperation in their efforts to do good, or in any 
way opposed and prevented their being mediums to 
us and others of the Lord's good and truth, — then 
we have in the same degree acted against the Lord's 
good and truth, and thus against the Lord. As we 
have buried the goods and truths of the Lord's dis- 
ciples, so we have buried Him. 

We are prone to deceive ourselves, and to imagine 
that we are not angry at our neighbors on account 
of their good works, and that we do not oppose 
their being mediums of good and truth, but only of 
evil and falsity. 



72 COME, SEE THE PLACE 

It is easy and natural to think so, even when the 
real or supposed wrongs of others have excited ani- 
mosity in our breasts, and while we think and speak 
evil of them, and make no brotherly efforts to reclaim 
them. 

But while our opposition to them is from our natu- 
ral feelings ; while it has any thing of unkindness in 
it ; and while we act against them according to our 
self-intelligence, and not according to the truths of 
the Word ; we are really more opposed to the good 
and truth in them, than to any thing evil or false. 
Our unkindness and enmity are natural and evil, and 
are essentially opposed to all good and truth. 

In order to oppose the wrongs of another Avithout 
opposing the good and truth in him and from him, 
we must be able to distinguish, and to preserve the 
distinction, between him and his evil qualities ; and, 
while we oppose and seek to put away from him all 
his evils and falsities, we must love him and endeavor 
to do him good. So the Lord treats us. He feels 
no unkindness towards us on account of our evils, 
though they are more opposed to Him than they can 
be to any man. He loves us infinitely, and seeks to 
impart to us every good. Be ye, therefore, merciful, 
even as your Father in heaven is merciful. 

"When we do not exercise this mercy, we reject 
it, and reject also the truths which teach us to have 
it. And this is rejecting the Lord. And then we 
substitute our falsities and self-intelligence, to direct 
us in our treatment of our neighbor ; and these slay 
and bury the goods and truths of our neighbor, and 
set a watch against their coming into life. Just so 



WHERE THE LORD LAY. 73 

far as we do this to one another, we do it to the 
Lord. How frequently have we thus crucified and 
buried the Lord ! " Come, see the place where the 
Lord lay." 

But in respect to the Lord, and all persons whom 
He has raised up, and all qualities of any individual 
which He has raised up, all these things have a very 
different meaning. In respect to the Lord, His 
sepulchre signifies His resurrection, and thence His 
full glorification. And, in respect to all that He 
raises up, it signifies their regeneration and resurrec- 
tion into heavenly life. And, as it signifies the end 
or completion of the Lord's glorification, and of 
man's regeneration, so it signifies the whole process 
by which the Lord was glorified, and is glorified in 
man, and man is regenerated. 

That we should come and see the place where the 
Lord lay, therefore, means that we should see how 
He was glorified, and how we must be regenerated. 
And it means not only that we should see, under- 
stand, and acknowledge these things, but that we 
should know them practically, — that the Lord 
should be glorified and raised up in us, and thus 
that we should be raised up out of natural life into 
heavenly, by following Him in the regeneration. It 
would do us no good to see the place where the 
Lord lay, unless we also laid down our life that we 
might receive life from Him. It would do us no 
good to know that He was glorified, unless we also 
became regenerated. It would do us no good to 
know any truths concerning Him and life from Him, 
unless we lived in those truths. But, if we will seek 
7 



74 COME, SEE THE PLACE 

Jesus the crucified that we may receive His salva- 
tion and eternal life, then it is good to come, and see 
the place Avhere the Lord lay. 

It is good to see how He ascended from natural 
life into divine life, and how He gives us a resurrec- 
tion out of natural life into spiritual and celestial 
life ; and it is very good to be thus raised up into 
His life. But let us remember, that we can be raised 
up only by renouncing and laying down all things 
of our selfish and worldly life. And we can be 
raised up into conjunction with the Lord, only so far 
as we love one another, and are brought into heav- 
enly consociation with one another. 

The Holy Supper is designed to give us this con- 
junction with the Lord, and consociation with each 
other. It is not designed to make us love one 
another naturally, but spiritually ; not to make us 
treat each other well according to the principles of 
Avorldly wisdom, but according to the truths of the 
Word. It is not to give us such consociation as 
natural men seek and enjoy; for they love only 
those who love them, and do good to those only who 
do good to them. The love which the Lord gives 
in the Holy Supper is His own love of good and of 
doing eternal good to all ; and the truth which He 
imparts contains that love, and shows us how to 
receive and exercise it. And this good and truth 
are the flesh and blood of the Lord's glorified 
Humanity, which we must eat and drink that we 
may have eternal life ; and, if we eat and drink these, 
we have life in us. 

If we do not renounce our evil loves, the Lord's 



where; the lord lay. 75 

love cannot be received when we eat the bread 
which is His body ; and, if we do not renounce our 
self-intelligence, we cannot receive the Lord's truth 
when we drink of the cup which is His blood. What 
is of ourselves must be laid down, that what is of 
Him may be received and raised up. And Ave must 
not believe that life from Him is internally received 
and appropriated, unless it comes down from the 
internal into good words and works. 

For, as the Lord was raised up that He might 
come down again to us, and do us more good ; so 
every good and truth which He imparts to us, and 
raises up in us, must come down again in doing His 
works of salvation to men. Love of His good and 
truth, when expressed, becomes love and good one 
to another. " Greater love hath no man than this, 
that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are 
my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." 
" Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 



SERMON VII. 



PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 
Matt. xiii. 1 — 9. — and, in that same day, jesus, going forth 

FROM THE HOUSE, SAT NEAR THE SEA. 

In the preceding chapter, the Lord teaches many 
things concerning doing the truth ; and requires 
that it be done from the heart, and not merely ex- 
ternally. This chapter begins by saying, that, in 
that same day, Jesus went forth from the house, and 
sat near the sea ; and the meaning is, that the instruc- 
tions given before, and those which next follow, are 
applicable to the same state. They were given by 
the Lord in the same day, that is, in the same state 
of his Divine Humanity ; and hence they are fitted 
to the same state of the regeneration of man. 

That He went forth from the house, and sat near 
the sea, signifies such a change as the mind under- 
goes, when, having been devoted to affections of 
good, its attention is directed to knowledges of truth. 
The former instructions were given in a house ; and 
a house signifies the will, and hence the good which 
is proper to the will. And those instructions related 
to doing good from the heart. But the sea, being 
the grand reservoir of waters, has reference to the 



PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 



77 



understanding, and to truth in the understanding ; 
and the teaching which follows has respect to the 
reception of truth. This shows what kind of a 
change in the Lord and in men is denoted by going 
from the house and sitting by the sea. 

But the internal purpose of mind, when we are 
devoted to affections of good, and when devoted 
to thoughts concerning truths, may be the same. 
Hence it is said, that Jesus taught concerning both 
on the same day. 

" And many multitudes gathered together unto 
Him, so that, going up into a ship, He sat ; and all 
the multitude stood on the shore." 

When you sit down by the sea, that is, when you 
compose and settle your mind to thinking on the 
truths which you know, what a multitude soon 
gather around you ! A great multitude of the know- 
ledges of truth collect before your view, and they 
are generally without order, and without purpose. 
They are not arranged for use ; and, while you look 
at them on their own level, you know not what to 
do with them. 

But, if your rational mind ascends into some gen- 
eral doctrine in which all these truths are involved, 
you can look down upon them, and see them individ- 
ually, and not as a collective mass ; and can see how 
to arrange them all in due order for use, and apply 
each to its own purpose, and to the common end. 

This process is represented by Jesus' going up 

into a ship, and the multitude's standing on the shore. 

He sat in the ship, because sitting was the posture 

for teaching ; and they stood on the shore, because 

7* 



78 PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 

standing is the posture for hearing, and being in 
readiness to obey. The external knowledges of 
truth in our minds should thus stand, when the doc- 
trine of truth in the internal mind reveals their duty. 
The things which we know are not to act in us as 
if they were rules of life, but to stand and hear, and 
hence obey, what the doctrine of truth commands. 
Then they will not operate as so many opinions, 
various and discordant, but will all conspire to the 
same end. 

The true doctrines of the Word are from the light 
of its spiritual sense. When man possesses these, 
he knows how to understand the literal sense ; for 
doctrine then serves as a lamp to guide him. But, 
without true doctrine as a guide, the literal sense is 
easily made to teach all kinds of heresies. The 
mere faculty of understanding is not sufficient to 
enable man to obtain genuine truth from the Word. 
The understanding needs a guide ; and that guide 
is true doctrine ; and this doctrine must be first 
revealed by one whose mind is opened into heavenly 
light. 

Those, especially, who teach truths from the 
Word, need to go up into a ship ; they need to be 
in true doctrines. When they are not so, what they 
derive from the Word, or profess to derive from it, 
will consist only of their own opinions and specula- 
tions as to its meaning. But they who are guided 
by the true doctrines of the Word can teach the 
genuine meaning of the Word. 

What the Lord taught from the ship consists of 
several doctrines. The first is the doctrine taught 



PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 79 

in the whole Word concerning men's reception of 
divine truth. It divides men into four classes, ac- 
cording to their different states of reception, and 
shows how the divine truth is regarded and treated 
by each class. 

" And He spake unto them many things in par- 
ables, saying, Behold there went out a sower to 
sow." 

The Lord spake in parables in order to veil His 
truth before the minds of those who would have pro- 
faned it, and thus have been made worse if it had 
been more plainly manifested. The covered style of 
the Word has the same use at this day. If any man 
is willing to do the Lord's will, he can know true 
doctrine, and will desire to knoAv it; and then he 
can understand the meaning of the parables, and 
other obscure language of the Word. And it is 
better that others should not understand. 

The Lord partially opened the meaning of this 
and some other parables, that men might know that 
they all have a spiritual meaning. A more full ex- 
planation is now given for those who will receive 
the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem. 

The sower, in the highest meaning of the term, is 
the Lord ; for the seed which is sown is the divine 
truth. The Lord alone is essential truth, and it 
proceeds forth from Him as light from the sun. The 
Word, or Sacred Scripture, is the same divine truth 
that proceeds as light from the Sun of Righteous- 
ness ; and when the Lord is spoken of, in respect to 
the truth or Word which He is and which He im- 
parts, He is often called the Son of Man. Thus, 



80 PARABLE OF THE SOWER, 

in the parable of the tares of the field, it is said, 
" He who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man." 

In the lowest sense, every one who teaches truth 
is a sower. Truth is the seed which he dissemi- 
nates. The minds of men are the fields in which 
truths are sown. The remains of good which have 
been stored in the mind are good ground. 

By the earth, or ground, when spoken of in 
respect to the human mind, are signified the things 
belonging to the will : hence, all the good and evil 
of the mind are man's spiritual ground. By waters 
are signified the things of the understanding : hence, 
all the truths and falses of the mind are its waters. 

Man's natural loves are not called good ground. 
Sow good seed in the mind of one who is in the 
exercise of his natural loves, and it will not be well 
received. The ground will not be open to receive, 
embrace, warm, and nourish it ; and the seed will 
not spring up, and produce its proper fruits. But 
sow certain other seeds, and you will see that this 
natural earth is in a state to receive them. Hence 
it may be manifest, that man's natural loves are not 
good earth or ground. 

The Lord provides that remains of good shall be 
implanted or formed in the mind during infancy and 
childhood, and in all the humble states of manhood. 
All the kind and innocent affections which are stored 
up become good ground ; and it is into this that the 
good seed is received, when man is instructed in 
spiritual truths. 

These remarks will assist us to understand the 
following verses. 



PARABLE OF THE SOWER. s I 

" And, in his sowing, some fell by the Avay-side ; 
and the fowls came, and devoured them." 

Those who have no concern about religious truth 
are they who receive the seed by the way-side. 
They hardly receive it : they do not receive it into 
any affections which are living in the way of life ; 
but they receive it only casually and indifferently by 
the way-side. 

The fowls which come and devour it are their 
vain conceits and fantasies. Teach the Lord's 
precepts to one of this class of persons, and he will 
reason away all their meaning, or make sport of 
them, and perhaps use them as smart sayings in his 
common discourse. By such means, a great part 
of the truths which are imparted to those who are in 
the conceit of their own intelligence are devoured. 
They take no root in the remains of good, if any 
such exist in the mind. 

In the exposition which the Lord gives of this 
verse, He says, " When any one heareth the Word 
of the kingdom and understandeth not, the evil 
cometh, and seizeth upon what was sown in his 
heart : he is it that was sown by the way-side." 

These vain persons think they understand many 
things of the Word ; but the Lord does not regard 
any as truly understanding His truth, who have not 
love of the truth. Observe what use these foolish 
persons make of truths in their understandings, — 
how they pervert and dissipate them, and you will 
not think they have a good understanding of 
them. 

And when they have so perverted them, the evil 



S2 PARABLE OF THE SOWER, 

spirits flow in, and seize on the truth, and turn it to 
evil instead of good of life. These persons grow 
worse by being instructed ; and they seem to be a 
very numerous class in every community. These 
constitute the first general class of those who hear 
the Word of God. The second class are thus 
described : — 

" But others fell upon stony places, where it had 
not much earth ; and immediately it sprung up, be- 
cause it had no depth of earth : but, when the sun 
arose, it was scorched ; and, because it had no root, 
it withered away." 

Of these the Lord says, " But that which was 
sown upon stony places is he that heareth the Word, 
and immediately with joy receiveth it : but he hath 
not root in himself, but endureth for a while ; but, 
when tribulation and persecution cometh because of 
the Word, he is immediately scandalized." 

This class of persons have an interest in know- 
ing truth ; but they want it as mere knowledge, or 
for the sake of reputation and worldly gain. They 
appear much delighted when they first learn the 
truth, and they readily acquire an external under- 
standing of it ; and they frequently manifest so warm 
a zeal in confessing and proclaiming it, that they 
pass for eminent disciples. 

But they do not receive the truth interiorly. They 
have little good ; there is no depth of earth in which 
the seed can gain root ; and therefore it is said that 
they have no root in themselves. That their ground 
is hard and stony is manifest from their morose and 
contentious spirit. We know that their ground is 



PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 83 

stony, because they throw stones at all who dissent 
from them. 

" But, when the sun was up, it was scorched ; 
and, because it had no root, it withered away." 

This has two very distinct meanings. The first 
and most external is that which is given in the Lord's 
explanation ; viz. that, when tribulation and perse- 
cution come because of the Word, they are imme- 
mediately scandalized. 

The literal sense of this needs no explanation ; but 
the Lord's exposition, as well as the parable itself, 
has an internal sense. By tribulation and persecu- 
tion are meant the spiritual temptations which arise 
when man's own evils and his false principles con- 
tend against the truths which he has received. Al- 
though truths may serve as instruments by which 
man gains wealth, reputation, and power, and they 
may be acknowledged while they can be used for 
these purposes ; yet they presently become very trou- 
blesome members of an evil man's household. It is 
not their proper duty to serve, but to rule ; and they 
improve every opportunity, when man's evils are 
asleep, or enfeebled by surfeiting, to assert, and 
prepare to assume, their proper authority. And 
when they have collected their forces, and stand 
forth in the mind to wage open war against man's 
evils, they are rejected and abandoned. They have 
not root enough in good, so as to withstand the 
assaults of the evils which arise in their wrath. 

This arising of man's self-love against the truths 
in his mind, when he finds that he can no longer use 
them as servants, but that they contend against his 



84 PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 

loves, is signified by the sun's arising. His reject- 
ing the truth, and falling wholly into evil, is signified 
by his being scandalized. 

All those persons who learn and confess the truth, 
and yet abandon it when they find that their selfish 
interests are not promoted, but are opposed by it, 
are of this class who receive the seed in stony 
ground. 

But there is still another important meaning to 
these words. Some persons receive the truth intel- 
lectually, and for a time seem fully to acknowledge 
it. But when the truth presses close upon them to 
be obeyed, and brethren draw near with the love of 
good, and produce a sphere of doing the truth ; then 
they are scorched, and wither away. This is to have 
the sun of heaven arise ; and its heat cannot be 
borne by those in whom the truth is not deeply 
rooted. They can live where the truth is merely 
known and talked of, and every one acts as he 
pleases ; but not where the fruit-producing heat 
penetrates the recesses of the mind ; for they have 
no depth of earth to receive and bring forth its life. 
Where the truth impels them to do it, they are 
scandalized. 

There is a general impression among men, that 
they love and desire to receive the truth ; and most 
of those Avho really love darkness rather than light, 
because their deeds are evil, would take it very 
unkindly, and would not believe it, if they were told 
that they loved not the truth. 

This persuasion is so strong with nearly all of us, 
that, when we are satisfied that we have obtained 



PARABLE OF THE SOWKK. 85 

the truth, we suppose it quite impossible that we 
should ever renounce it. For the same reason, 
we expect our neighbors avIio have received the 
truth to continue in it. But we do not sufficiently 
consider how the truth is received by ourselves and 
our neighbors. We do not well consider the four 
different kinds of receivers, and that the truth can 
permanently remain with only one of them. 

There is no reason to believe, that all who learn 
that the Heavenly Doctrines are true will continue 
to believe them. Pride of self-intelligence may pre- 
vent their openly renouncing them ; but the renun- 
ciation is real when they make their self-will and 
their own opinions the rules of life. And this is 
quite possible to be done, while the doctrines of the 
church are confessed to be true. 

After death it will appear, that the truths of the 
New Church which have ever entered our minds 
have all been virtually renounced, except those 
which we have reduced to life. 

" But others fell among thorns, and the thorns 
sprung up, and choked them." 

Of these it is said, " But that Avhich is sown among 
thorns is he that heareth the Word ; and the cares of 
this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the 
Word, and it becometh unfruitful." 

Our evil concupiscences are the thorns which 
spring up, and choke the Word or divine truths. 
These evil lusts fill us with the cares of the world, 
and give to riches their deceitful value. When these 
evil lusts occupy the mind, there can be no influx of 
heavenly affection for the good of truth ; and truth 



PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 



in the understanding, which is not vivified and kept 
shining by an affection for applying it to life, soon 
appears to be choked, and gradually becomes faint, 
and expires. 

Do we not see examples, in which persons appear 
for a short time to know and acknowledge the truth ; 
and then their love of riches, pleasures, contentions, 
reputation, or dominion, rises into activity, and their 
interest in the truth fades and dies as a plant which 
receives no nourishment at the root ? The cause is, 
that the evil loves close the heavens, so that there 
is no influx of good into the truths in the under- 
standing. 

Many who begin to learn the truths of the New 
Church are of this class. They are interested in 
these truths in certain states, when their evil affec- 
tions are less active than usual ; but, when these turn 
their minds towards self and the world, their affec- 
tion for the truth ceases. 

And these thorns often spring up, and choke the 
Word, with those who have long possessed it. They 
are not careful to shun evils as sins ; and evils that 
arise in the mind, and are not then denied and 
shunned, always become thorns that choke the Word. 
Contend as much as you will that you are still a firm 
believer in the heavenly truths, and strive as hard as 
you will to keep your knowledge of them complete ; 
yet, if you indulge enmity towards your neighbor, 
or live in adultery, or seek after riches as an end, or 
indulge habitually any other known evil, truths will 
be choked, and your whole life will bear witness that 
they become unfruitful. 



PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 87 

There is one fact, concerning this class of persons, 
which needs to be carefully remembered. When 
the Word is choked in them by their evil concu- 
piscences, and hence their anterior affection for it 
declines, they have seldom ability to see that their 
affection for it has abated. They often excite in 
themselves an external zeal for the truth, to prevent 
the appearance of their being in evil ; and this hypo- 
critical affection for it appears even more sincere to 
themselves than to their intelligent brethren. It is 
attended by a nauseous sphere, which often repels 
those who are in good states of mind ; but this sphere 
is not perceived by themselves, because it is proper 
to their life. 

We cannot therefore judge whether we are re- 
ceiving the truth among thorns, by inquiring whether 
our affection for the truth has abated ; but we must 
explore ourselves, and ascertain whether we are 
living in the indulgence of known evils ; and, if we 
find that we are so living, we may be certain that 
our interior affection for the truth is diminished, and 
that the truths we have received are choked. If we 
then shun the evil as sin against God, we shall soon 
come into a state in which we can see clearly that 
the thorns had choked the seed, and caused it to be 
unfruitful. 

These remarks are for those who desire to know 
how to judge themselves. 

" But others fell upon the good earth, and yielded 
fruit, some an hundred, and some sixty, and some 
thirty." 

The good ground is the remains of good implanted 



88 PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 

in infancy, childhood, and every state of innocence 
and obedience. Every one who can reflect ration- 
ally is able to see, that such ground is necessary to 
receive truth ; for truths are always treated as by the 
three preceding classes of persons, when there is no 
interior love of good into which they are received. 
Such good receives truths as the earth receives seeds ; 
and from the truths it produces good works, as the 
earth, from seeds, produces fruits. This is the rea- 
son why good works are called good fruits, and evil 
works are called evil fruits. 

What commonly pass for good works in civil 
society are such as are externally useful. But a 
great part of these are done from selfish and world- 
ly motives. Only a few are done from internal 
love of good, or from obedience to the command- 
ments. The end which man regards in what he 
does, and the truths by which he does it, determine 
its quality. The ground must be good, and the seed 
good, in order to produce good fruits. There must 
be genuine love of good, and genuine truths teach- 
ing what is good, in order that good works may be 
produced. 

Many say that it is sufficient to have a love of 
doing good ; and that if man have not truths, yet his 
works are accepted because he meant well. But 
they might as well say that the quality of the seeds 
is of no consequence, provided the ground be 
good. So foolish are they who think that it is of 
little importance to learn spiritual truths, and that 
it is sufficient to do good according to their natural 
ideas. 



• PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 89 

The text speaks of different amounts of good fruit, 
produced by different persons ; some one hundred, 
some sixty, and some thirty. Although this literally 
relates to the quantity, yet spiritually it relates rather 
to the quality, of the good produced by the different 
classes of those who have good ground. 

There are three classes of good receivers of the 
Word, as well as three classes of bad receivers. 
There are, in general, three heavens and three hells ; 
and these are opposites. Every man on earth is 
internally conjoined with one of these heavens or 
hells. 

When the Lord mentions three classes of evil 
receivers of the Word, and only one class of good re- 
ceivers, He still divides this one class into three, by 
saying, that some of them produce an hundred, some 
sixty, and some thirty. 

Those who produce an hundred are celestial men, 
and are conjoined with the celestial heaven. They 
are principled in love of the Lord, or simple love of 
good for its own sake. With them the seed pro- 
duces the most fruit, and of the best quality. 

The second class, who produce sixty, are spiritual 
men, and conjoined with the middle heaven. They 
act from the love of truth, or from charity. 

The third class, who produce thirty, are in the 
external degrees of celestial and spiritual good, 
which are called celestial-natural and spiritual-natu- 
ral. These are conjoined with the lowest heaven, 
which consists of two such classes of angels. For a 
description of the three heavens and the three hells, 
see the " Treatise on Heaven and Hell." 

8* 



90 PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 

Those who receive the seed by the way-side stand 
in opposition to those who yield thirty ; those who 
receive it on stony ground, to those who yield sixty ; 
and those who receive it among thorns, to those who 
yield an hundred. Those who receive it by the 
way-side are therefore conjoined with the hell that 
is least evil ; those who receive it on stony ground 
are conjoined with the middle hell ; and those who 
receive it among thorns are conjoined with the lowest 
hell. 

Every one who hears or in any way learns divine 
truth belongs to one of these six classes ; and, when 
we see how few have any desire to learn the genuine 
truths of the Word, and how many of these turn 
away before they have reduced the truths to life, we 
cannot doubt that very many men are evil, and are 
conjoined with the hells. This accords with Sweden- 
borg's express declarations on the subject. 

Doubtless some persons fail of receiving the truths 
of the New Church from causes which imply little 
guilt on their part ; but our natural affections, and 
our love of excusing our own imperfections, incline 
us to extend this favorable judgment too far. The 
Lord closes this parable respecting the different 
classes of receivers of the Word, by saying, " He 
that hath ears to hear, let him hear ; " and this cer- 
tainly implies, that all who have a capacity to 
understand divine truths are under obligation, not 
only to receive, but to obey them. 

The first effect of hearing is understanding : and 
the second effect, with those who are in a good state, 
is obeying the truth. Both of these are therefore 



PARABLE OP THE SOWER. 91 

required of all to whom the truth is presented. All 
who have not been long abandoned to evil life have 
some remains of good. They have enough good 
ground to give them ability to bear good fruit. 
When they hear the truth, they can attend to it, and 
understand certain degrees of it, and obey what 
they do understand. And this will increase their 
good ground, and gradually the quality of their good 
ground will improve. Hence their ability to yield 
good fruit may continually increase. 

These things may be said of almost every one ; 
and, therefore, all who are indifferent to the truth, 
or who receive and pervert it, are guilty of great 
wrong. They act against the only means of salva- 
tion which the Lord can extend to them ; for His 
power to save them from sin, and give them eternal 
life, is in His truth ; and it can operate in them, only 
by their receiving His truth and doing it. " He that 
hath ears to hear, let him hear." 



92 



SERMON VIII. 



WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 

Matt. xiii. 10 — 17. — axd the disciples, coming, said to him, 

■WHY SPEAKEST THOU UNTO THEM IX PARABLES ? 

The disciples represented all who love to learn divine 
truths that they may do them. All such have a 
desire to understand the style of the Word. They 
wish to know why its literal sense is so obscure, or 
manifests so little heavenly light. They are not like 
many people at this day, who, because they see no 
religious meaning in the literal sense, infer that it has 
no meaning that is important to them ; nor are they 
like another class, who say it is all holy, but evade 
all inquiries as to its meaning. But, where the 
Lord's words appear obscure to them, or seem to 
them obscure to others, they believe there is a good 
reason for it ; and they go to the Word itself to learn 
the reason. And the inquiries of such persons are 
answered. 

" And He, answering, said to them, Because to 
you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom 
of the heavens ; but to them it is not given. For 
whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall 
have abundance ; but whosoever hath not, even what 



WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 93 

he hath shall be taken away from him. On this 
account I speak to them in parables, because seeing 
they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, 
neither understand." 

A few extracts from Swedenborg will explain 
these verses : — 

" All who have acquired to themselves intelligence 
and wisdom in the world are accepted in heaven, and 
become angels, every one according to the quality 
and quantity of intelligence and wisdom ; for what- 
soever a man acquires to himself in the world, this 
remains, and he carries it along with him after 
death; and it is also increased and filled, but within 
the degree of the affection and desire of truth and its 
good, but not beyond it. They who have had little 
of affection and desire receive little, but still as much 
as they can receive within that degree ; but they who 
have had much of affection and desire receive much. 
The degree itself of affection and desire is as the 
measure, which is increased to the full ; more, there- 
fore, to him whose measure is great, and less to him 
whose measure is small. This is meant by the Lord's 
words, t To every one who hath shall be given, and 
he shall have abundance.' " H. H. 349. 

" In the other life, falses are removed from those 
who are in truths derived from good ; and truths are 
removed from those who are in falses derived from 
evil. Thus they who are in truths derived from good 
are elevated into heaven ; and they who are in falses 
from evil sink down into hell ; and, when they are in 
hell, they are in terror and consternation on account 
of truths derived from good. That such a state 



94 WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 

awaits those who are in falses derived from evil, and 
those who are in truths derived from good, the Lord 
teaches in these words, ' Whosoever hath, to him shall 
be given ; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be 
taken away what he hath.' " A. C. 9330. 

" If the Jews had been instructed in the mysteries 
of faith, they would have perished eternally, because 
they would have mixed holy things with profane. 
And this was the reason why the mysteries of faith 
were not revealed to them, insomuch that it was not 
openly declared to them [before the Lord's advent], 
that they should live after death, nor that the Lord 
should come into the world to save them. Yea, in 
so great ignorance and stupidity were they kept, and 
are still kept, that they did not know, nor do they 
know, that there is an internal man, or that any 
internal principle is given ; for, if they had known, 
and if they now knew, so as to acknowledge, they 
are of such a quality that they would profane ; and 
thus they would have no hope of any salvation in the 
other life." A. C. 301, 302. 

These remarks show why the literal sense of the 
Old Testament was clothed in an obscure style, so 
that spiritual truths do not plainly appear. It was 
to prevent the Israelites from receiving a higher and 
purer order of truth than they could obey. And, 
for the same reason, most of the Lord's instructions 
in the New Testament were given in parables. 

All actual sin, and positive misery resulting from 
sin, are from disobedience to known truths ; and 
therefore the Lord, in mercy, guards the Word, that 
it may not be understood further than men are able 



WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 95 

to do it. The Jews, and many other people, are so 
imbued with evil and false principles, that they would 
certainly profane all higher degrees of truth than they 
possess, if they knew them. While they know them 
not, they have not the sin, and will not have the 
punishment, of profaning them. They have the sin, 
and will have the misery, of living in their present 
evil and false principles ; but this is less than would 
result from profaning more holy degrees of truth. 

The more interiorly men receive truth, and the 
more they reform themselves, or are cleansed and 
healed by it from their spiritual defilements and dis- 
eases, the worse their state becomes if they afterward 
relapse. " The last state of that man is worse than 
the first." This appears from a subsequent verse 
of the text. 

The words, " Seeing they see not, and hearing they 
hear not, neither understand," are thus explained. 
Seeing has respect to the understanding. In their 
act of seeing the meaning of the Lord's words, they 
do not truly see it. This is obvious ; for, when 
they proceed to tell the meaning which they see in 
the Lord's words, they tell not the true meaning. 
And, in like manner, in hearing they do not hear ; 
for, when they attempt either to obey or expressly to 
disobey a divine truth, they generally mistake its 
meaning. They thus mistake the Word, because it 
is written in such a manner as to require a different 
state of mind from theirs to receive its genuine sense. 
And this is of great mercy, to keep them in ignorance 
of what they would profane. 

" And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, 



96 WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 

which saiih, By hearing ye shall hear and shall not 
understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not per- 
ceive. For the heart of this people is become gross, 
and with their ears they hear heavily, and their eyes 
have they blinded, lest at any time they should see 
with the eyes, and hear with the ears, and under- 
stand with the heart, and be converted, and I should 
heal them." 

Swedenborg remarks, that " the term hearing is 
here used in every sense ; denoting to be instructed, 
to believe, and to obey. Hearing they do not hear, 
denotes to be taught, and yet not to believe ; also to 
be instructed, and not to obey. With the ears to hear 
heavily, denotes to refuse instruction, faith, and obe- 
dience^." A. C. 9311. 

In some cases, it is represented that the Lord 
blinds the eyes of men, lest they should see His 
truths; and, in other passages, it is expressed that 
men blind their own eyes. So also it is sometimes 
said that the Lord hardens their hearts, and some- 
times that they harden their own hearts. Some 
passages of the Word also ascribe anger and revenge 
to the Lord. 

In all such cases, the evil that is attributed to the 
Lord really belongs to men ; and the literal contra- 
diction in the texts arises from the fact, that some of 
them are written according to the reality of things, 
and .some according to the appearance of things to 
natural men. It appears to natural men that their 
wickedness is the result of a kind of necessity pro- 
duced by the Divine Providence, and this is ascribing 
it to the Lord, Ten thousand examples, daily before 



WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 97 

us and within us, prove this to be the case. When 
the preacher teaches any duty, a great part of his 
hearers begin to make excuses. Each finds some- 
thing in the condition or circumstances under which 
he is placed which he thinks excuses, and perhaps 
requires, his continuing to neglect that duty. And 
this is ascribing his neglect of duty, and his continu- 
ance in sin, to the Lord. 

That the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled in the 
grossness and blindness of the Jews and others to 
whom the Gospel comes, signifies spiritually that the 
Lord, in speaking to them in parables in accommo- 
dation to their depraved state, fulfilled that part of the 
Word which teaches that such persons require divine 
truth to be veiled in this manner. These words also 
imply, that the prophecies were written in the same 
obscure style, to prevent their being understood by 
those who would profane them. 

In proportion as the human race became evil, they 
became incapable of acknowledging interior orders 
of truth in their hearts, and of doing them. They 
still retained the faculty of understanding interior 
truths ; but with them, as with men at this day, their 
ordinary thoughts and perceptions were rendered 
gross and obscure by their evil affections. When 
they did see any truths interiorly, they perverted and 
falsified them ; and every such act of profanation 
greatly increased their blindness and their sin. 

For this reason the Lord guarded the Word to 
prevent men from seeing its truths in their internal 
quality, while their minds were so depraved that 
they would not be kept from profaning them. The 



y» WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 

guards thus set to protect the Word — that is, to pre- 
vent men from approaching it more nearly than is for 
their good — are called cherubim. These are meant 
by the cherubim and a flame of a sword which the 
Lord placed at the east of the garden of Eden to 
keep the way of the tree of life. The garden of 
Eden signifies intelligence or knowledge of heavenly 
truths. The cherubim are the guards placed by the 
Lord to prevent men from seeing Him, and the truth 
of good proceeding from Him, in greater degrees 
than would be for their good. The flame of a sword 
denotes the zealous, but ineffectual, efforts of the 
evil to understand holy things. Such persons often 
strive hard to enter into the meaning of the Word. 
They thrust their thoughts violently in evey direc- 
tion, as the flame of a sword turned every way ; 
but their sensual loves perpetually turn their thoughts 
away from the interior things of the Word, and thus 
prevent their finding and profaning holy things. 

The spiritual truths of the Word are also mostly 
covered with natural truths, and even descriptions 
of sensual and worldly things, to which the affec- 
tions and thoughts of evil men are readily attracted. 
When they read the Word, their minds are drawn 
to these things ; and many are quite satisfied with 
them, and do not want to find any thing more 
heavenly. Thus they are guarded against discover- 
ing what they would profane. 

In some parts of the Word, the literal sense con- 
sists of natural expressions, arranged in such order 
as to the natural man appears perfect disorder. 
Such is the style of many of the prophecies. And 



WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 99 

by this means a guard is set to protect the Word 
from profanation. 

There are angels also attendant on every man, 
whose kind office it is to open and close his under- 
standing according to the states of his affections. 
They open it to see divine truths, or, what is the 
same thing, they present divine truths to the under- 
standing, when the affections are in a good state ; 
and they close the interiors of the understanding, or 
withdraw heavenly truths, when the affections are in 
an evil state. 

Thus there are many kinds of cherubim or guards 
set for the defence of the tree of life. But let none 
think that the Lord thus guards the internal truths 
of the Word, from any unwillingness that man 
should receive them, and have eternal life ; but He 
protects the tree of life, lest man eat of its fruit, and 
live for ever the life that is spiritual death. Although 
the Lord provides that the Word shall be defended 
so as not to be intelligible to the evil, yet He pro- 
vides for its being opened to the good. To His 
disciples He says, 

"Blessed are your eyes because they see, and 
your ears because they hear." 

Just in proportion as man shuns evils as sins, he 
has a good understanding ; the interior faculties of his 
intellect are opened, and are turned upward towards 
heaven to receive truth thence. And there are 
always many aids afforded, both natural and spirit- 
ual, to those who seek the way of life, that they may 
walk in it. 

To see, when it relates to the true disciples of the 



300 WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 

Lord, signifies to understand, and to have faith ; 
and to hear or hearken, signifies to assent to with the 
will, and to do. And the things Avhich the disciples 
saw and heard, mean the interior truths which are 
revealed to those who will have faith in them and 
do them. Their blessedness is the heavenly happi- 
ness which there is in living in the truth from love 
and faith. 

Before the Lord came into the world and formed 
to Himself a Humanity in which He can be present 
with men, and guard them against profaning His 
truth, and open their minds to receive it, — before 
this, they had far less ability to receive interior truth 
without profaning it, than they have since His com- 
ing. The great power which He took to Himself, 
and employed for the good of men, is displayed 
principally in rendering it safe for them to receive His 
truth more fully than they could before He glorified 
His Humanity. By bringing His divine love and 
wisdom down more fully into the presence of spirits 
and men, He caused them to distinguish between 
good and evil more perfectly ; and then the power 
of His truth separated between the good and the 
evil in the world of spirits, and thus executed a judg- 
ment. By this the power of the evil spirits over the 
minds of men was greatly diminished, and the power 
of the good over the minds of men was greatly in- 
creased. 

And, as the Word was made flesh and dwelt 
among men, so it now dwells in them far more 
than before the incarnation. The Lord is with us 
always — He is God with us — in a sense in which 



WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 101 

He was not before He assumed and glorified His 
Humanity. The Divine Spirit of Truth Avhieh He 
now imparts from His Humanity, and which could 
not be given before His glorification, is the Holy 
Spirit. And this Spirit of Truth guides men into all 
truth. It is itself the divine truth brought down 
more fully to man's state, and having power to 
protect him while he enters into the light of spiritual 
truth. 

On account of this increase of divine protection, 
the Lord, when He glorified His Humanity, also 
revealed truths more plainly than before. Hence 
is the difference between the New Testament and 
the Old. Every one knows that spiritual truth 
appears far more distinctly in the New. Still a 
covering was necessary, although it is thinner and 
more transparent ; and the reason why spiritual 
truths could not be revealed without any covering, 
when the Lord was in the world, was because the 
protecting power of His Divine Humanity could not 
then be brought into full operation. 

No heaven had then been formed of those who 
were regenerated by believing in, and living the life 
of, the Divine Humanity. Hence there was an 
essential deficiency of the requisite mediums for the 
descent of the Holy Spirit. And until a heaven 
could be formed of those who acknowledged the 
Lord in his Divine Humanity, and until such a 
heaven should come down with its protecting and 
vivifying power into the minds of men, their minds 
could not bear to have spiritual truths wholly un- 
veiled. 

9* 



102 



WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 



Such a heaven has been partially formed since the 
Lord's advent. It has been formed principally from 
those who have died in infancy ; but partly from all 
those who have believed the Lord to be the Son of 
God, and not a person separate from the Father, 
and who have lived in charity according to the com- 
mandments. It is through this new heaven that the 
Lord now manifests Himself to form His New 
Church ; and in the New Church His promise is to 
be fulfilled, " The time cometh when I will speak 
no more in proverbs." 

Now His protecting and enlightening power is so 
great, that men can bear to have the internal sense 
of the Word revealed. They may now safely enter 
into the mysteries of faith, provided they will en- 
deavor to shun evils as sins ; and the Avicked are 
guarded against entering into them, although they 
are plainly revealed. We say they are guarded ; but 
this does not mean, that the guard is so complete that 
they cannot receive any of the truths, and profane 
them ; but that they are very much guarded. This 
is obviously true from the fact, that those who read 
or hear the truths of the New Church in an unfriendly 
state of mind scarcely ever understand any of them. 
But some read in a friendly state, and thus learn 
many truths, and afterward relapse into evil life, and 
profane them. Such persons cannot be protected, 
because they turn rebels against the truth, after they 
have received its protection. They are therefore 
guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. 

The partial removal of the veil from the Word, 
when the Lord was on earth, effected so great an 



WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 103 

increase of light, that what is said in the next verse 
of our text was literally true : — • 

" For verily I say unto you, that many prophets 
and just men have desired to see what ye see, and 
have not seen ; and to hear what ye hear, and have 
not heard." 

Even those who were in truth and good, who are 
meant by prophets and just men, could not be safely 
admitted to a view of spiritual truths before the Lord 
came, and executed a judgment, and glorified His 
Humanity ; for, had they seen them, they could not 
then have been kept in an acknowledgment of them. 
And, if spiritual truths had been openly revealed, 
the evil would have treated them as they treated the 
Lord while on earth, and have perished eternally. 
Hence the prophets, who were mediums of the truths 
of the Word of the Old Testament, did not see them. 
They spake and wrote as they were moved, and not 
according to any judgment or will of their own. 

It is not to be understood, that this difficulty and 
danger in understanding spiritual truth existed from 
the beginning ; but it began with the fall, and in- 
creased till the time of the Lord's coming in the 
flesh. Neither could it then be wholly overcome. 
Men could receive protection in understanding the 
internal truths of the Word, only in proportion as 
they came into the acknowledgment, that the Hu- 
manity of the Lord is Divine, and that Pie is the true 
God and eternal life. And, before a church on earth 
could be formed in which this acknowledgment could 
be explicit and full, it was necessary that a heaven 
should be formed of those who were saved by this 



104 WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 

acknowledgment and correspondent life. The for- 
mer heavens were not proper mediums of this faith 
and life. They were of a different genius from men 
after the Lord's advent. They were from races of 
men in whom all truth and good had respect to Him 
who was to come ; and it was necessary to have a 
heaven of those who were conceived and born and 
educated in the acknowledgment of the Lord as 
having come, and glorified his Humanity, and be- 
come the Saviour of the world. 

For the want of such a heaven as a protecting 
medium, the Christian church has hitherto known 
but very imperfectly who the Lord Jesus Christ is ; 
and the ignorance and doubt in respect to Him have 
been accompanied, and are now accompanied, by 
equal ignorance and doubt respecting the internal 
truth of the Word. 

Those at this day who believe that He is a mere 
man, also debase the "Word to the level of human 
compositions. A great portion of it they regard as 
antiquated ; as applicable to ages of less light than 
the present, but as nearly or quite useless at this 
day. It is uncommon for them to derive from it 
any truth which savors of spirituality ; and the 
degree of good which they see by its light is but 
little above what the Jews saw. The Jews saw 
nothing to be good but bodily health, plentiful har- 
vests, dominion over their enemies, riches, and sen- 
sual pleasures. Their knowledge and their loves 
were wholly devoted to this world. And those at 
this day who deny the Divinity of the Lord and 
his Word regard men's natural selfish loves as good 



WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 105 

loves, and the gratification of these loves as genuine 
good. This is the good which they see in the light 
of the Word ; and this shows that they are blind 
in respect to the spiritual truths of the Word, and 
that they, like the Jews, profane its natural truths. 

The same remarks apply to others at this day, in 
proportion as they fail of acknowledging the Lord 
to be the true and only God. They fail in the same 
degree of entering into the spiritual truths of the 
Word. To them the Word is still veiled ; it is still 
spoken in parables and dark sayings, as of old. 
And, as the Jews thought the Lord had a devil and 
was mad, because He brought forth spiritual truth 
and good in his instructions and life ; so men at this 
day proclaim the same against all who receive the 
spiritual good and truth of the Word. 

This shows very plainly that the Word is still 
protected. Although it is now plainly revealed that 
the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God of heaven 
and earth, and the spiritual sense of the Word is 
brought forth and written and preached with as 
much distinctness and clearness as possible, yet over 
all the glory there is still a covering. The cherubim 
fulfil their office more perfectly than ever before. 
Although the external veil is removed from the 
Word, and it is thus rendered easy for those who 
love the light to enter in and see the glory of the 
holy city, yet it is so guarded that there shall in no 
wise enter into it any thing that defileth, or worketh 
abomination, or maketh a lie. And we see, that, 
under this restraint, by far the greater part — nearly 
all — of those to whom the heavenly truths are pre- 



106 WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 

sented, stare at them as spectres, reject them as 
enemies, and declare that they have a devil and 
are mad. 

This is of infinite mercy ; for it is far more dan- 
gerous to receive the truths of the New Church 
without obeying them, than to receive such external 
truths as were previously revealed. These spiritual 
truths enter into, and explore, and dwell in the 
inmost recesses of the mind ; and, if these are pro- 
faned, the whole mind becomes a hell. But the 
damage by profaning external truths is mostly lim- 
ited to the exteriors of the mind, and is comparatively 
small. 

When the truths of the New Church are taught 
and acknowledged openly, and all are left in entire 
freedom in respect to receiving them, it is rarely the 
case that any one will embrace them who will after- 
ward profane them. But there are two cautions 
necessary to be given in this place ; and they ought 
to be well considered and remembered. 

The first caution is against using natural arts of 
persuasion to induce any person to receive the 
Heavenly Doctrines. If we present riches, honors, 
or the favors of our friendship, as inducements to 
any persons to read, hear, and embrace these truths, 
we may thereby insinuate many truths into their 
minds, when they have no good ground to receive 
them. Such affections as are thus excited are not 
good ground, and what is thus received will be in 
great danger of profanation. 

These remarks do not apply to children. It is 
the duty of parents to cause their children to learn 



WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 107 

these truths ; and the obedience which children ren- 
der to their parents in learning them, does form good 
ground. 

The second caution is against teaching and re- 
ceiving these truths as mere knowledges. From the 
very commencement of teaching or receiving them, 
the duty of applying them to the life is to be placed 
as a frontlet between the eyes, and as a sign on the 
hand. To devote a sermon or a conversation to 
showing what is true, without directing the mind 
to the good for the sake of which the truth is given, 
is not allowable. The good of life which the truth 
teaches should always be the end ; and this end 
should be kept full in view whenever the truth is 
taught or learned. 

Faith alone is nothing, and charity alone is noth- 
ing ; but the union of the two, and nothing else, is 
religion. 

If this had always been duly considered and re- 
garded by teachers and learners of the Heavenly 
Doctrines, we should not now see so many believers 
of the doctrines who are scandalized when the duty 
is urged of applying them to life. There is no 
measure to the harm that is done, by filling the mind 
with spiritual truths, without the good of those 
truths. 

Teach the truths openly, and confess them dis- 
tinctly and fully, and do them wholly, at all times 
and in all places where it is proper for you to live. 
They will protect you and themselves against dam- 
age, by producing the proper separation between 
him that feareth God, and him that feareth Him not. 



108 WHY THE LORD SPAKE IN PARABLES. 

And those who will not receive them in the love of 
doing them will be protected by their own blindness. 
And let us not persuade them by any appeals to their 
selfish interests, nor give them any idea that it would 
be useful for them to know the truth, without doing 
it. Let us leave them in true freedom ; and be 
thankful, if they cannot believe the truth and do it, 
that they are protected against profaning it. 

" In that same hour, Jesus was glad in spirit, and 
said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 
because Thou hast hid these things from the wise 
and intelligent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 
Even so, Father ; for so it seemed good in thy 
sight." 



109 



SERMON IX. 



THE PARABLE OF THE TARES OF THE FIELD, 
Matt. xiii. 24 — 30. — another parable put he forth unto 

THEM, SATING, THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKENED UNTO A 
MAN WHICH SOWED GOOD SEED IN HIS FIELD. 

In the explanation of this parable which the Lord 
gave, He says, " He that soweth the good seed is 
the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good 
seed are the sons of the kingdom, the tares are the 
sons of the evil. The enemy that soweth them is 
the devil, the harvest is the consummation of the age, 
and the reapers are the angels." 

The field is the church of the Lord in the heavens 
and in the earths. The good seed, which are said 
to be the sons of the kingdom, signify the truths of 
heaven and the church. Truths are sons ; and the 
kingdom of the Lord, which is heaven and the church, 
is the spiritual mother, who receives these truths 
from the Lord, and from whom they are born as 
sons. The Lord, when spoken of as being the truth, 
and as imparting it, and as ruling and judging men 
by it, is often called the Son of Man ; and it is He 
who is meant by the man who sowed the good seed 

10 



110 PARABLE OF THE TARES. 

in the field, or who imparts truths to heaven and the 
church. 

In order that we may not take a larger field than 
Ave can compass in a single discourse, we must limit 
our attention to the Christian church established by 
the Lord and His apostles. 

In this field the Son of Man sowed good seed, or 
spiritual truths. Some of these truths were naked, 
or openly revealed ; and others were covered, or 
veiled. Some were like wheat made ready for use, 
and some were like the seeds still covered with the 
husks. From what was divested of its covering, 
men might well infer that it was all good wheat. It 
was a fair sample of the whole. And those who 
desired this, and ate it, and were nourished by it, 
would seek to obtain more of the same kind ; and 
they, knowing the difference between wheat and its 
husks, could easily separate them, and receive a 
constant supply of good seed. But those who did 
not relish the wheat would prefer the husks, or the 
mixture of wheat and chaff; and the husks served 
the wheat for shelter and protection against those 
who would profane it. 

" But, while men slept, His enemy came, and 
sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way." 

Where the Lord says that the good seed are the 
sons of the kingdom, He also says that the tares are 
the sons of the evil. The internal mind of man is 
called heaven, and the external mind is called earth 
and sea. In this earth and sea reside all man's 
evil and false principles. The good seed, or sons of 
the kingdom, therefore signify the spiritual truths 



PARABLE OF THE TARES. Hi 

belonging to man's internal mind. The tares are the 
falsities arising from the evils of man's external mind. 
They are called the sons of the evil ; meaning that 
they are the offspring of the evil part of man's mind, 
and that is his external or natural mind. 

The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The 
evils and falsities of the external mind flow in from 
hell or the devil, as goods and truths flow into the 
internal mind from the Lord out of heaven. 

Remember that the field is the church ; and then 
say that the Son of Man implanted in it spiritual 
truths, flowing in through the heavens and the inter- 
nal minds of men ; and that falsities also were sown 
in the church, flowing in through the external minds 
of men from hell. 

The tares were sown while men slept. When 
men's affections are engaged in doing good, their 
understandings are awake to see and apply spiritual 
truth ; but when their charity, or love of good, 
ceases, their spiritual sight is closed, and they are 
said to be asleep. The natural man is often said in 
the Word to be asleep, and the spiritual man awake. 
To awake out of sleep is to pass from a state of 
attention to natural things to a state of interest in 
spiritual things. Those who are ignorant of spiritual 
truths are said generally to be asleep, because their 
eyes are not open to see them. 

After the good seed was sown in the church, there 
were still many persons whose hearts were selfish 
and worldly : they kept in natural states of mind, and 
hence were spiritually asleep. And while they loved 
not spiritual truth, and their eyes were closed in 



112 PARABLE OF THE TARES. 

respect to it, falsities would flow in from hell ; for, 
while men indulge their evil, natural loves, false 
principles will flow from them as naturally as smoke 
and flame from natural fire. This is the origin of 
heresies in the Christian church, and this is what both 
produces and perpetuates heresies at this day. The 
great majority of men are spiritually asleep, — so fast 
asleep that they know not that the Sun of Righteous- 
ness has again risen on the earth. 

While men are in such natural states, false princi- 
ples flow into their minds, and even gain dominion 
there when they observe it not. This is meant by 
the secret manner in which the tares were sown, 
which is indicated by the enemy's sowing them and 
departing while men slept. 

" And when the blade sprung up, and brought 
forth fruit, there appeared the tares also." 

This signifies, that, when truth grew and produced 
good, falses from evil were intermixed. This has 
reference to the early ages of the church, and to 
early states in the regeneration of individuals ; for 
such states are indicated by " when the blade sprung 
up." 

The church had seasons of wakefulness ; and in 
every age some were awake, while others slept. The 
good seed, therefore, sprung up, and produced some 
good fruit ; but the history of the church shows that 
tares were early sown, and that they sprung up even 
in the first ages of the church. 

" And the servants of the householder coming, 
said to Him, Lord, didst not thou sow good seed 
in thy field ? Whence, then, hath it tares ? And 



PARABLE OF THE TARES. 113 

He said to them, A man, an adversary, hath done 
this." 

The householder, or father of the family, signifies 
the Lord. The servants signify those who are in 
truths from good. They, perceiving the false doc- 
trines that sprung up, and knowing that the Word of 
the Lord could contain only truths, were perplexed 
with the inquiry whence these falsities could origi- 
nate. They were the more embarrassed with this 
question, because all who brought forth or received 
false doctrines contended that they were from the 
Word, and they confirmed them by numerous texts 
from the Word. They all professed, also, to be 
sincere and devout seekers for the truth ; and they 
strongly contended that they ought to be tolerated, 
and allowed equal rights with those who dissented 
from them. 

The grand question which the true servants of the 
Lord were then prompted to ask, and which has 
constantly occurred ever since, was, whether false 
doctrines should be ascribed to evil of heart. Those 
who have held false doctrines have always contended 
that their origin was good ; that they were in the love 
of truth and good, and by these were led to their 
doctrines. 

But the Lord, when interrogated on this subject, 
has always answered, that a man, an adversary, hath 
done this. His Word teaches to all who are in a 
state to learn its real meaning, that tares, or false 
principles, originate in the evils of the external mind ; 
in those evils which close man's spiritual eyes, and 
make him judge of spiritual things by natural light. 



114 



PARABLE OF THE TARES. 



The Lord teaches this, not only by His answer in 
this parable, but very openly in many texts which 
ascribe the blindness of men to their love of evil, and 
in all places where He teaches that it is necessary to 
do His will in order to hear His words or know His 
doctrine. But the great difficulty is, that those who 
believe falsities, or are in darkness, think they believe 
truths, or are in the light. They say, " We see." 
Hence their falsities must be removed, before they 
can be shown that their falsities were from evil. 

It has, indeed, been generally known and acknow- 
ledged, that the Scripture ascribes the falsities of men 
to their evils ; but each sect has applied this truth to 
censuring other sects, without seeing its application to 
themselves. A sect, however, has arisen, and gained 
great celebrity at this day among the lovers of spirit- 
ual sleep, who say that the tares were not sown by 
a man, an adversary. They not only hold that their 
own doctrines, even if they are false, are not from 
evil, but they say the same in respect to the doctrines 
of others which they believe to be false. And, be- 
cause they extend this favorable judgment to others, 
they call themselves liberal and charitable. 

Those who have known that the false doctrines in 
the church are from the evils of the natural mind, 
have been inclined to ask the next question in the 
text : " The servants said unto Him, Wilt thou that 
we go and gather them up ? " 

When this question has been asked by the true 
servants of the Lord, they have received and obeyed 
the answer, — "Nay; lest, while ye gather up the 
tares, ye root up the wheat together with them." 



TARABLE OF THE TARES. 115 

But a great many persons ask questions of the Lord 
to which they have already prepared answers in their 
own minds ; and then they make Him sanction their 
own falsities. 

Persons of this class have pretended that the Lord 
required them to gather up the tares, to collect and 
punish and destroy those who held false doctrines. 
Hence the origin of persecutions. 

In the next verse the Lord says, " Let both grow 
together till the harvest ; and in the time of the har- 
vest I will say to the reapers, Gather together first 
the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them ; 
but bring together the wheat into my barn." 

He afterward says: " The harvest is the consum- 
mation of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 
As, therefore, the tares are gathered together and 
burned in the fire, so shall it be in the consummation 
of this age. The Son of Man shall send His angels, 
and they shall gather together out of His kingdom 
all things that scandalize [all scandals], and those 
that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of 
fire : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

By the harvest, or consummation of the age, 
is meant the last time, or end of the Christian 
church, — not of the true Christian church, but of 
that external form of it instituted when the Lord was 
in the world, which was only preparatory to the true 
Christian church, signified by the New Jerusalem. 
In the common English translation of the Word, the 
reading is, " The harvest is the end of the world ; " 
and from this very erroneous translation many of us 
have been led to suppose there would be a period 



116 PARABLE OF THE TARES. 

when this material world would be destroyed ; and 
that the Christian church would last till that period, 
and then have its judgment. The same has been 
inferred from the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, 
where the same expression occurs. But, in all 
cases, this and similar expressions have reference to 
the closing period of the Christian church, when the 
Lord executed a judgment in the world of spirits on 
all who had died from the commencement of the 
Christian church, and who had not been previously 
judged. 

The introduction of these tares as falsities into the 
church, and their growth, and ultimate ascendency 
over all true principles, were what brought the church 
to its end. 

The wheat and the tares, or truths and falsities, 
were to be permitted to grow together till the har- 
vest, or end of the church ; and then those Avho were 
principled in falsities were to be separated from those 
who were in truths, and were to be associated to- 
gether in communities according to their qualities, 
and then let down into hells of similar qualities. 
This is meant by their being gathered together, and 
bound in bundles, and cast into the furnace of fire. 
The collecting together of all who were in truth from 
good, and elevating them into heaven, is signified by 
gathering the wheat into the barn. For a particular 
account of this judgment, see the exposition of the 
fourteenth chapter of the Revelation in the "Apoca- 
lypse Revealed," or the book on the " Last Judg- 
ment," or the chapter on the " Consummation of the 
Age" in the True Christian Religion. 



PARABLE OF THE TARES. 117 

It is said that the reapers are the angels ; but, in 
the internal sense, angels signify divine truths. The 
name angel signifies any thing that is sent ; and the 
divine truths proceeding or sent forth by the Lord 
are what reveal the qualities of spirits, and separate 
the evil from the good. The spirits who are called 
angels are so called because they receive divine 
truths, and are mediums through which truths are 
manifested, and perform their offices. 

The decision of the Lord, that the tares should 
not be separated from the wheat, but that both 
should be permitted to grow together until the har- 
vest, is sometimes misunderstood, especially by those 
who have a personal interest in the toleration of 
false principles. Such persons sometimes infer from 
this text, that they need not take pains to discover 
and remove the false principles in their own minds ; 
but may let them remain till the end of life, when 
they will be separated from them and destroyed. 

But the text does not teach that we must not 
pluck up the tares from our own minds, but only 
that we must not endeavor by force to separate 
them from others. Swedenborg remarks, that " no 
one can be forced to believe contrary to what he 
thinks from his heart to be true." And this shows 
the folly, as well as wickedness, of endeavoring to 
produce uniformity of faith by the application of 
rewards and punishments. 

But every man is able, in some degree, to force 
himself. He cannot immediately compel himself to 
believe what he does not now believe ; but he can 
deny and compel himself to shun the evils of his 



118 PARABLE OF THE TARES. 

natural mind. He can thus expel the enemy that 
sows the tares ; and, if some are already sown, they 
will soon wither and die, when the enemy that sowed 
them is removed, and ceases to nourish them. True, 
doctrine teaches that it is every man's duty thus to 
compel himself. If he does so, many of his false 
principles will be separated from him in the present 
life ; and the rest will not be internally united to his 
loves, and may easily be separated after death. But 
the false principles of those who do not shun evils as 
sins cannot be separated from them after death ; 
for, if they were, others like them would immediately 
flow from their evil loves. The essential of a man 
is his will or ruling love ; and, if that continues evil 
till the end of life, it will bind his evil loves in the 
same bundle with his falsities, and will itself be a 
furnace of fire. 

Some have also inferred from this text, that we 
ought not to make any distinction in a Christian 
community between those who hold true doctrines, 
and those who hold false doctrines. They say that 
all should be permitted to grow together until they 
come to their final judgment. This is true to some 
extent, but not so far as the wicked would have it. 
So evil men would have the restraints of the civil law 
removed, under the pretence that they have as good 
a right to do as they please, as good men have to do 
as they please. But in the Lord's kingdom we find 
nothing of such a doctrine of equal rights. 

It is true that those who hold false principles 
should be permitted to live, and should not be perse- 
cuted and punished, unless they make disorder in 



PARABLE OF THE TARES. 119 

the community. The means of spiritual instruction 
are also to be extended to them ; and, in all re- 
spects, they are to be treated with love for their 
spiritual good. But this does not imply, that they 
should be esteemed or treated like men who believe 
and do the truth. 

Those whose minds are made insane as to spirit- 
ual things by falsities are called in the Word drunk- 
ards ; and, if you know how natural drunkards 
ought to be esteemed and treated, you can easily 
infer your duty in respect to spiritual drunkards. 

The reason given in the text, why the tares should 
not be separated from the Avheat before the harvest, 
is, " Lest, while ye gather together the tares, ye root 
up the wheat together with them." 

Such is the effect of endeavoring by force to 
remove the false principles of others. It destroys 
their freedom ; and then good and truth cease to 
live and operate, as well as evil and falsity. It is 
very certain that all the persecutions in the Christian 
church, on account of religious opinions, have had 
more effect to root up the wheat than the tares. 
Those who held true doctrines, and yet received 
and indulged the spirit of persecution, lost their 
true faith, because they lost their charity. In gath- 
ering up the tares of their neighbors, they rooted up 
the wheat in themselves. 

As a further explanation of the Lord's direction, 
that both the tares and the wheat should be per- 
mitted to grow together till the harvest, let us view 
this world in connection with the spiritual, and make 
the following statement : — 



120 PARABLE OF THE TARES. 

The field in which the Lord sowed good seed is 
the church on earth. What is sown here grows up 
into the spiritual world, as what is literally sown 
in the earth grows up into the air. Something of 
the growth from spiritual seed is seen on earth ; but 
w r hat we see is to be called rather the roots than the 
stem and fruit. These appear principally in the 
spiritual world. 

From the Christian church where the Lord had 
sowed the good seed, thoughts and affections, and 
persons also, were continually shooting up into the 
world of spirits ; and the Lord's servants there had 
abundant reason to complain that tares appeared 
among the wheat. 

Those who came from this world into the world 
of spirits, and were internally evil, and hence inter- 
nally in falses from evil, but for selfish ends assumed 
the form of godliness, and were externally engaged 
in useful labors, and in teaching men to live well, 
and who could be made also to conform to rules of 
external order, — these are the persons who are 
meant by the tares. It is obvious that their whole 
lives were but falsities, for they were externally one 
thing, and internally another ; and such falsity is 
what is specifically meant, in the abstract sense, by 
tares. 

This also seems to correspond to the literal mean- 
ing of tares. The Greek word zizania, which is 
rendered tares, is said to occur nowhere but in this 
place. No Greek writing contains it ; and much 
difficulty has hence occurred in finding its meaning. 
From the best we can collect, it appears to be a 



PARABLE OF THE TARES. 121 

plant much resembling wheat, but containing seeds 
of an evil quality. It is commonly called darnel ; 
but the Arabic name is zizania, which term the 
Lord adopted. The remarks of one writer respect- 
ing it are too striking to be omitted : " The darnel 
is well known to the people of Aleppo. It grows 
among corn. If the seeds remain mixed with the 
meal, they render a man drunk by eating the bread. 
The reapers do not separate the plant ; but, after the 
thrashing, they reject the seeds by means of a fan or 
sieve." 

This description has such decided marks of truth, 
that the mind can hardly doubt its correctness, ex- 
cept as to a part of the process of separating the 
darnel. 

Its external resemblance to wheat furnishes a 
reason why no attempt should be made to separate 
it till harvest, when the quality of its fruit, and thus 
its internal quality, is disclosed. Hence, also, in 
the spiritual sense we may see the reason why men 
on earth should not be permitted to judge such 
persons. And it will appear thai the text does not 
refer to those who manifest their evil and false princi- 
ples, as thorns and thistles. It is not said that such 
may grow with the wheat till the harvest. 

But there is a much higher meaning to all this. 
When those persons, who were signified by the 
tares, were collected in great numbers in the world of 
spirits, they formed to themselves religious and civil 
establishments, in which they manifested all things 
which they thought constituted heaven. These were 
far more extensive and powerful and glorious than 
11 



122 PARABLE OF THE TARES. 

any kingdom of men ever was on the earth. The 
inhabitants conducted well externally ; for all such 
as made disturbance were separated, and cast into 
hell. 

And such was the show of goodness among this 
class of men, that many simple-minded spirits who 
were in internal good thought these tares to be 
wheat, and associated themselves with them, and so 
continued till the consummation of the age. These 
tares also allied themselves to the angels of the 
lowest heaven, who, being very simple minded, 
could not explore their interior quality. And, in- 
deed, so intimate Avas the association between them, 
that they could not be separated while the tares 
retained their resemblance to wheat. 

The religious and civil institutions, and the exter- 
nal professions and life of these persons, were such 
that their communities appeared as heavens ; and 
not only they, but others who could not see their 
internals, thought them to be heavens. And these 
are meant by the former heaven which passed 
away. 

But, though they appeared as wheat, they were 
tares. Externally .they were conjoined with the 
lower heaven, but internally they were conjoined 
with hell. At the consummation of the age, when 
the Lord sent forth. His angels, or revealed His 
divine truths among them, to explore them, and 
bring to light their internal characters, they ceased 
to appear as heavens. And then the good among 
them Avere separated, and the loAver heavens Avere 
glad to be delivered from all alliance Avith them ; 



PARABLE OF THE TARES. 123 

and then, in immense numbers, they sunk down 
into hell. 

If they had been gathered up sooner, and con- 
signed to their own place before their internal quality 
was disclosed, the angels of the lower heaven, and 
the good who were among them, would have suf- 
fered essential damage. The separation could not 
have been borne, while the tares were so conjoined 
with the wheat. And, if disorder and damage had 
been produced in the lower heaven by separating 
the tares, the higher heavens must have suffered 
also ; for the ultimate heaven is as the basis and 
support of the others. This is a very great reason 
why the tares should not be separated from the 
wheat till the harvest, or consummation of the age. 

The question may be asked, why could not truth 
have been revealed sooner, so as to disclose the 
true quality of these persons, and bring them into a 
state in which their externals and internals would 
agree, and thus separate them from all the good ? 

It is not to be supposed that we can comprehend 
this matter, except very imperfectly. We can, 
however, see that it is according to the established 
order in which every thing is created and is perpet- 
uated. In the vegetable world, every thing has its 
circle of life, — its springing, its state of full growth, 
and its concluding state, in which all but the seed 
decays and is separated. 

Animals have an annual cycle of life, resembling 
vegetables, and a general cycle resembling that of 
men, except that their life ceases at death. 

Men pass through the several states of childhood, 



124 PARABLE OF THE TARES. 

of manhood, and of old age. The end, or consum- 
mation, is death. Then the husk is separated from 
the kernel, the natural from the spiritual ; and the 
essential part commences a new order of life. But, 
with some kinds of men, neither the best nor the 
worst, — as with some kinds of grain, — there are 
inner husks or coatings, which are not cast off at 
death. Of these we shall speak again. 

Men in their collective capacities, as nations, king- 
doms, and churches, have their rise, their meridian 
glory, and their consummation ; and Avhen in their 
growth, or in the firmness of their manhood, their 
internal composition and quality are not discover- 
able ; but, at their consummation, are disclosed their 
riches and their poverty, their strength and their 
weakness, their good and their evil. 

So, likewise, there is a grand cycle of human life, 
embracing the full period from one judgment to 
another. Within this a church is established on 
earth, and passes through its various states to its 
end. All who go from this world to the world of 
spirits within that period, and are not ready for 
judgment, are brought into a state within this period 
to cast off all their husks or coverings, and to be 
externally what they are internally. 

This grand cycle, or period, is what is called by 
the Lord an age. When He was on earth, He 
brought one age to its consummation. The former 
church ceased, and all who remained in the world 
of spirits were judged. Then commenced the new 
age, or the age of the Christian church. This had 
ils end, or consummation, in 1757 ; and this is the 



PARABLE OF THE TARES. 1'2~) 

consummation of the age referred to in the New 
Testament. 

A new age has now commenced ; and it is pro- 
vided that spirits shall not collect in such numbers 
in the world of spirits as during former ages. 

The tares are sooner separated from the wheat. 
The ages are shorter. None are permitted to 
remain more than thirty years in the world of 
spirits. The spiritual Sun is brought nearer to men 
and spirits, and the periods of their revolutions are 
shortened. 

The reasons why many establishments of the Old 
Church still remain on earth are similar to those 
already given for the delay of judgments. It takes 
some time for a judgment to descend into the ex- 
ternals of the church, without destroying the wheat 
with the tares. 

The last words connected with the text had their 
fulfilment in the spiritual world, when the tares were 
separated from the wheat ; and they will be fulfilled 
on earth, when the corresponding judgment has been 
fully executed : " Then shall the just shine forth as 
the sun in the kingdom of their Father." 



126 



SERMON X. 



THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 
Matt. x'di. 31, 32. — another parable tut he forth to them, 

SAYING, THE KINGDOM OF THE HEAVENS IS LIKE UNTO A GRAIN 
OF MUSTARD-SEED, "WHICH A MAN TAKING SOWED IN HIS FIELD I 
•WHICH, INDEED, IS THE LEAST OF ALL SEEDS J BUT WHEN IT IS 
GROWN IT IS_ GREATER THAN HERBS, AND BECOMETH A TREE, SO 
THAT THE BIRDS OF HEAVEN COME, AND MAKE THEIR NESTS 
IN ITS BRANCHES. 

The mustard of Palestine does not differ materially 
from the same plant in this country ; and it is very 
obvious, that neither the plant nor the seed answers 
to the description in the text. A great deal of 
learned labor has been bestowed to ascertain what 
plant is here meant ; but nothing satisfactory has been 
determined. We do not see that the question is of 
much importance. If the plant were simply named 
in the text, without any description of it, it would be 
important to obtain a description ; but the text 
teaches us respecting it all that is necessary for 
understanding the spiritual sense of the parable. 

When it is said that the kingdom of the heavens is 
like certain natural objects and operations, the mean- 
ing is, that these natural things correspond to certain 
spiritual things which occur in the work of regenera- 



THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 127 

tion ; for regeneration is the work of forming the 
kingdom of God within men. 

Men in their natural state have no spiritual good, 
and hence no natural love of spiritual truth. The 
good ground is formed by education ; but only a 
little of it, and that of a very inferior quality, is 
formed while men generally love darkness rather 
than light, because their deeds are evil. 

Because there is little good ground, only a few of 
the good seeds, or divine truths, which are sown 
in the mind, fall into good ground. Some fall by the 
way-side, some on stony ground, and some among 
thorns. And, because there is so little truth, and it 
is so much less in the mind than falsities and merely 
natural scientifics, therefore it is called the least of 
all seeds. This refers to the state of man while he 
is yet natural, and before he is made spiritual. All 
there is in him of the kingdom of the heavens is that 
least of all seeds. 

The Lord's merciful providence is infinitely careful 
of this little seed, and waters and nourishes it with 
the rains and dews and sunshine of heaven. He 
guards it with His cherubim and the flame of a 
sword. And, so far as it can be done without 
destroying man's freedom, He induces man to per- 
mit it to spring up and grow, and occupy the field. 

It presently becomes greater than all herbs. All 
the truths and falsities which have been sown in the 
mind, and have sprung up or been brought forth into 
operation, are called herbs. And, when the divine 
truth that has been sown in the mind has sprung up, 
and has become the governing principle or law of 



12S THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 

man's conduct, then it is said to be greater than 
herbs ; meaning that it is greater, or has more 
power, than the principles of the natural mind. 

Every one has arrived at this state who makes the 
divine truth, and not his self-intelligence, the rule of 
his life ; and every such person can look back and 
see that truth has been in his mind in the state when 
it was the least of all the seeds in his field. He 
cannot so well see how it has sprung up and grown, 
and acquired its present greatness ; but he can un- 
derstand this better, now it is done, than when it had 
not grown. 

But, after the divine truth has acquired root, and 
grown up to be the highest authority of the mind, 
there is still much work for it to do. This work is 
described in other places, but not in this parable, 
except by very general expressions. But every one 
may see, that it must gain possession of the whole 
field ; and many things are there which urge the 
strong claim of possession, and abandon it not with- 
out fighting for their firesides and their altars. 

The leading object of this parable is to show how 
good seed is increased in the process of regeneration. 
Before it can be greatly multiplied, the seed must 
not only spring up and become an herb, but must be- 
come a tree, and produce fruit in which is the same 
kind of seed. And then, as trees are multiplied from 
a single seed, and fruit and seeds are immensely 
increased by continual reproduction, so it is with the 
increase of goods and truths in the mind of one who 
has truly become a man. 

Truths and goods are not thus increased, or multi- 



THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 129 

plied and fructified, until the herb has become a tree, 
and bears fruit ; that is, until the truth is united to 
good, and becomes man's life, — becomes the man. 
By a tree is meant man ; and as the seed produces 
the tree, so the divine seed or truth produces the 
regenerate man. 

The following passage is from Swedenborg : — 
" With man who is in good, — that is, in love and 
charity, — seed from the Lord is so fructified and 
multiplied that it cannot be numbered for multitude : 
not so whilst he lives in the body, but in the other life 
incredibly. For, so long as man lives in the body, 
the seed is in corporeal ground, and is there amongst 
things twisted and dense, which are scientifics and 
pleasures, and also cares and solicitudes ; but, when 
these are put off, as is the case when he passes into the 
other life, the seed is loosened from them and grows, 
as the seed of a tree is wont when it rises out of the 
ground to grow into a shrub, also into a great tree, 
and next to be multiplied into a garden of trees. 
For all science, intelligence, and wisdom, with their 
delights and happiness, thus fructify and are multi- 
plied, and thereby increase to eternity, and this from 
the least seed, as the Lord teaches concerning the 
grain of mustard-seed ; and it is manifest, from the 
science, intelligence, and wisdom of the angels, 
which was to them ineffable at the time they were 
men." A. C. 1941. 

We can obtain in this life but a very indistinct and 
imperfect conception of the great increase of intelli- 
gence which is given to good men, w T hen they have 
left the world, and are admitted into their proper 



130 THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 

societies in heaven. In this world, knowledge is 
obtained through vocal speech, reading, and per- 
sonal reflection and experience. If every man in the 
Avorld could communicate to you all the knowledge 
he possesses which your mind is capable of compre- 
hending, and could do it by merely thinking it, 
without the natural labor of speaking and writing, 
how immense and immediate would be the increase 
of your intelligence ! In the spiritual world, men 
not only have ability to communicate all they know 
in this manner, but they have no ability to conceal it. 
They can explore and read each other's minds at a 
glance. 

The light of heaven is not a mere natural corre- 
spondent of the light of divine truth, but is itself the 
light of divine truth. While our minds are in 
natural light, we see spiritual things by a kind of 
inference from their correspondence with natural 
things ; but, after death, we shall see nothing but 
spiritual things, and our minds will be wholly in the 
sphere of their existence. And the light in which 
angels think and see transcends the light of this 
world so immensely, that no comparison will give an 
idea of its excellence. The intelligence of the angels 
is from that light ; and the apparent or external light 
with them is only in proportion to the internal light of 
their minds. 

When any one from the earth is added to any 
heavenly society, he comes into the common light of 
that society. All the truths known in each society 
are known to all its members, and the new comer 
immediately receives the whole. All in a society 



THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 131 

do not understand each truth in the same degree, 
for there are different orders of minds ; but all 
understand the common truths according to their 
capacities. The blood which circulates through the 
man gives life to every member, and each receives it 
according to his quality and office. 

When we consider that men may be regenerated 
in the present life, and some even to the seventh 
state ; and when our thoughts dwell on the high 
attainments of men in the advanced states of regene- 
ration, we are liable to fall into some mistakes. We 
are not accustomed to suppose that any persons with 
whom we are acquainted have advanced to the 
higher degrees of regeneration ; and we judge of 
the condition and qualities of those who have so 
advanced by reasoning from truths of doctrine. But 
we are liable to reason incorrectly, because our rea- 
sonings relate to things of which we have no living 
and personal experience. 

We may be much mistaken as to the degree of 
wisdom and goodness which men at this day would 
manifest, if they were regenerated, in respect to both 
the will and the understanding. The quality of the 
world around them, the essentially gross and per- 
verse state of their bodies and the exteriors of their 
minds, render it exceedingly difficult for heavenly 
principles which have taken root to come forth and 
manifest themselves with any vigor. They grow in 
a soil hard and unfriendly, and in a climate cold and 
blasting. 

And say not, that, if any one were truly regene- 
rated, all these things in respect to him would be 



132 THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 

reformed. These external things yield but slowly, 
and complete reformation is not effected with them 
as soon as heavenly principles gain root and an 
abiding existence in the mind. Many persons have 
experience which would teach them this, if they 
knew how to read it ; and it is important for their 
strength and comfort that they should know how to 
interpret such experience. 

To those in whom the divine truths have taken 
root, and who honestly endeavor to bring them forth 
into word and deed, we may safely say, that their 
efforts to speak and do the truths are attended with 
but partial success. When their endeavors are sin- 
cere and resolute, they impart or speak but few of 
the truths which they internally perceive and acknow- 
ledge. They cannot speak so Avell as they can think 
them, nor can they form them in external thought 
so well as they can internally conceive them. 

The same is true of their efforts to do good. An 
affection which is internally pure, and ardent for 
spiritual good, must first clothe itself with the rigid 
forms of natural good; and is resisted and choked, 
not only by all the evils and falsities of the external 
mind, but by all things in the world into which it 
seeks to come forth. Who that endeavors to do 
spiritual good is not sensible of this struggle, and 
almost complete failure, to bring out his good into 
ultimate life ? " The spirit is willing, but the flesh 
is weak." " The children are brought to the birth, 
but there is not strength. to bring them forth ; " or, if 
they are born, Pharaoh and Herod have commanded 
to slay them. 



THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 133 

Now, the good and truth which are internally 
conceived, and which man endeavors to bring forth, 
do gain a real and eternal existence in the mind. 
They acquire, indeed, far more of distinctness and 
fulness of life than man can see ; for he sees only 
their effects in a lower degree of the mind. 

It is indeed essential that good and truth be brought 
into life in this world, in order that they may acquire 
eternal life, or may become eternal life in the mind ; 
but this does not mean, that they must or can come 
forth into act and word with all their internal fulness 
of life. They are stored up in the mind as they are 
internally, and not as they are externally. And, when 
the good man comes into that world where to think 
is to speak, and to will is to do, he will find that, dur- 
ing his life in the body, he had spiritually and really 
said and done a thousand-fold more of truth and good 
than was externally known to himself and the world. 
When the Lord says to him, " I was hungry, and ye 
gave me to eat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me to 
drink ; naked, and ye clothed me ; I was sick, and 
ye visited me ; I was in prison, and ye came unto 
me, " — he will be but very partially conscious that 
he has done such things. He will say, " When saw 
we Thee hungry, and fed Thee ; or thirsty, and gave 
Thee drink?" He will be astonished to find, that 
his apparently trifling works of good among his 
brethren involved so much of internal duty to the 
Lord. 

The present life must be employed principally in 
warfare against evils and falses. The opposite goods 
and truths are thereby received and implanted ; but 
12 



134 THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 

they are only a little manifested, and do not grow up 
to maturity in the present life. Few of the tender 
herbs become great trees, until they have been trans- 
planted into a more congenial soil and climate. But 
whatever has taken root in this world will spring up 
and bear fruit, and be multiplied incredibly after 
death. 

All these remarks may show equally how evil and 
falsity are stored up with the wicked, and come forth 
and are multiplied in the other life. And he that is 
wise will be careful not to account lightly the evil or 
the good, the falsity or the truth, that is manifested 
in this world, because they are comparatively small. 
He will not despise the day of small things ; for they 
are the seeds and plants which are destined to be- 
come great things. 

It may easily be conceived, that, when men come 
into a world where all things are conformed to their 
internal principles, their state will be very different 
from what it is in this world. Then the good will 
have, in every successive state, all the good and 
truth they have a capacity to receive ; and all that 
they have they can fully express in words and ac- 
tions. The contest between internal good and truth, 
and external evil and falsity, and between heaven 
within the mind and the world without it, will have 
ceased for ever. The interiors and the exteriors of 
the mind will be reduced to agreement and unity ; 
and all things in the surrounding world will exist, 
not to be shunned, but to be appropriated and en- 
joyed ; for all external things will correspond to 
those within the mind. Nothing will be presented 



THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 135 

to check and stifle the goods and truths constantly- 
imparted by the Lord ; but all things will conspire 
to promote their growth, and to fructify and multi- 
ply them. 

Those who are capable of reflection can see, that 
the truths of the Word acquire in the minds of most 
men but a very stinted growth in the natural world. 
How little are they opened and expanded ! How 
little information do they really give men in respect 
to regeneration, and spiritual life in this world and 
the world to come ! 

At this day, most men prevent, if possible, the 
seed's springing up ; and those who permit this seem 
to unite, by common consent, to prevent its growing 
up, and putting forth branches. This is true of many 
of the leaders in the old church. Among the common 
people, there is occasionally a tendency in the herb 
to put forth branches. The religious truth in their 
minds leads them to inquiry concerning spiritual 
things. They wish to know, not only the matter of 
fact that there is a God, but who He is, and how He 
is to be thought of. They wish to know, not only 
that there is a heaven and a hell, but they wish to 
branch out, and learn what they are, both as to 
generals and particulars. In respect to natural 
things, they are permitted to become trees. Their 
science branches out into as many departments as 
they please ; and in each, the birds of the air build 
their nests ; their thoughts explore the whole, and 
form rational habitations. 

Some of these persons wish to do the same in re- 
spect to spiritual things ; but their teachers give them 



136 THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 

no instruction to enable them to do it. They go to 
their teachers, and ask for information concerning 
these things ; but they are told that it is all a mys- 
tery, and that they ought humbly to rest satisfied 
without such knowledge till they die. Thus every 
branch which the heavenly plant would put forth is 
nipped in the bud. 

But, if the field of the church were cultivated by 
better husbandmen, these heavenly plants might put 
forth branches, and become trees of considerable 
growth, even in this world. There is no good reason 
why religious knowledge should be limited to one 
slender stem or single blade. There is truth re- 
vealed sufficient to make spiritual science as ex- 
tensive as natural, and as various in its branches. 
Bad as the world is, it is capable of becoming better ; 
and our merciful Father has set no limits to the 
improvement of men in good or truth. He has not 
imparted a little, and said that men shall have no 
more ; nor has He commissioned any teacher to 
discourage any efforts of His children to learn the 
truths of His kingdom. 

"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites ! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against 
men ; for ye neither go in, nor do ye suffer them 
that are entering, to go in." 

There is a wicked propensity in many children 
to kill all the birds. They derive it from the pro- 
pensity in their parents and teachers to destroy all 
rational thoughts concerning spiritual things. 

Not only the church in each individual, but also 
the church in the general sense, advances from the 



THE GRAIN OP MUSTARD-SEED. 137 

least of all seeds till it becomes a great tree. How 
very small it was, both in respect to the number of 
persons whom it embraced, and the quality of their 
reception of its life, when the Lord was on earth ! 
Even the twelve apostles knew no other than that the 
Lord's kingdom was to be a kingdom of this world. 
And what they thought it was to be, men have gen- 
erally sought to make it, even till this day. Scarce 
any have been willing that the kingdoms of this 
world should become the kingdoms of our Lord and 
His Christ ; but men have generally sought to sec- 
ularize spiritual things, and reduce the Lord's king- 
dom to a kingdom of this world. 

We see this more distinctly at the end of the 
church, when the evil principles which have long 
been working secretly are somewhat divested of 
their covering. What now is the Catholic religion, 
but a system of secular dominion ? What is the 
Evangelical or Reformed Church, but a system pro- 
viding for man's spiritual welfare, by his devoting to 
it a certain kind of thought or faith, while it leaves 
the whole life to self and the world ? What is 
Liberal Christianity, but a system which abolishes 
all distinction between spiritual life and natural life, 
between love of the Lord and the neighbor, and love 
of self and the world ? 

We have an infallible index to the essential quality 
of all these systems : they all deny the Divinity of 
the Lord's Humanity, and the spiritual sense of the 
Word. And, Avhen these are denied, the end of all 
that is called religion is the dominion of self-love and 
self-intelligence. The world in which these are the 

12* 



138 THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 

gods is the only world of which there can be internal 
faith or love. 

But, though men crucify the Lord, He is not 
dead, except in those who slay Him. He rises in 
glory, and takes to Him His great power, and reigns. 
Though men falsify His truths, they are living truths 
still. The seed which was sown in the world is still 
in the world ; and although every work of man shall 
perish, yet the Word of the Lord abideth for ever. 

Though there are few who now receive it, and in 
them it is still the least of all seeds, yet it has com- 
menced the creation of a new heaven and a new 
earth, in which it will grow and become a tree, and 
the birds of heaven will come and make their nests 
in its branches. In the New Church, spiritual truths 
are to be rationally understood. The kingdom of 
God is to come down, and worldly kingdoms are to 
be subjected. This means that all natural science 
and art and labor are to be brought into corres- 
pondence with, and made subservient to, spiritual 
truth and good. Evil loves which now reign, and 
direct all science, art, and labor to selfish and 
worldly ends, are to be removed ; and heavenly 
loves are to take their place, and direct all to the 
good of the Lord's kingdom. 

Then spiritual life and natural life will be united ; 
and all the truths, and the arts, and all works proper 
to natural life, will become servants to the corres- 
pondent things of spiritual life. Every natural 
science will be subservient to the corresponding 
spiritual science. While the external faculties of 
the mind explore the natural, the internal will ex- 



THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD-SEED. 139 

plore the spiritual. No limits will be set to know- 
ledge in any department. One condition, and only 
one, will be established in respect to the attainment 
of each degree of truth ; namely, that it be applied 
in doing the good which it teaches. 

Then the internal sense of the Word will be seen 
in its own light, which is the light of heaven ; and , 
this light descending into the exteriors of the mind, 
the natural truths of the Word, and all scientific 
truths, will be seen and acknowledged to be from 
the same Divine Fountain of light ; and " the earth 
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the 
waters cover the sea." 



140 



SERMON XL 



PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 
Matt. xiii. 33 — 36. — another parable spake he to them : 

THE KINGDOM OF THE HEAVENS IS LIKE UNTO LEAVEN, WHICH A 
WOMAN TAKING HID IN THREE MEASURES OF MEAL, TILL THE 
WHOLE WAS LEAVENED. 

Many persons can remember, that, when they first 
began to learn the Heavenly Doctrines, their false 
principles were in a state of more than common 
tranquillity. Perhaps sickness, or the death of some 
friend, had turned their attention to spiritual things ; 
and they had found, on reflection, that the doctrines 
of the old church had no ability to lead them into 
spiritual truth. Perhaps they had been led by some 
other means to discover the inconsistencies in the 
old doctrines. Whether it can or cannot be remem- 
bered, something had occurred to weaken the power 
of their old, false principles, and liberate the mind 
from their dominion. 

Although false principles were then more feeble 
and quiet than usual, the mind was much troubled 
from a sense of its depravity, and of its want of 
spiritual riches. But, when it had found the heavenly 
treasures of the Word, revealed in the writings of the 



PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 141 

New Church, there was much gladness ; and a long 
state then commenced, in which the mind seemed 
to itself to be delivered out of the hands of tyrannical 
falsities, and endowed with the liberty of the sons of 
God. During this period, truths were greatly mul- 
tiplied in the mind. The old falsities had but little 
power. They could do nothing but submit to all 
the rebukes and chastisements which truths saw fit 
to inflict. The prominent external habits, which had 
been the effects of false principles, were then re- 
formed ; and it seemed to these persons, that they 
had wholly and for ever abandoned these falsities. 

The truths which were thus stored up in the mind 
are the three measures of meal. These truths had 
not become good : the meal had not been converted 
into bread. A process of fermentation was neces- 
sary to purify the meal from many discordant ingre- 
dients. 

Falsities are not loosened out of the ground of 
man's natural loves, and removed from the field, 
merely by receiving and implanting truths. They 
remain in the mind, — not only in the memory as 
things known, but inwardly conjoined with man's 
affections, so that a great part, and the most real 
part, of his life is still according to them. And 
when he comes into a state to endeavor to do inter- 
nally the truths which he has acquired, he finds that 
falsities are mixed with the truths. The meal is not 
free from natural impurities, and is not ready to 
become bread. 

In this state, truths are in the understanding, and 
man thinks that he is a full receiver of them. It is 



142 PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 

then very hard to gain access to his internal life ; 
for you can approach him only with truths, and he 
is covered with truths, and will use them for his 
defence according to the state of his affections. 

To bring such persons into a state in which truths 
will be their internal principles, something more is 
necessary than teaching them that they should apply 
truths to life. They admit this externally ; and 
something must occur to show them that they do not 
admit it internally and practically. Let certain false 
principles in an active state be infused among their 
truths, and we may see how the Lord brings good 
out of evil. 

This will be best explained by examples ; but we 
must first remark, that leaven, or yeast, which pro- 
duces fermentation, signifies falsities derived from 
evil. 

If some one in this community were to teach 
openly that it is right for every man to cheat as 
much as he can whenever he makes a bargain, and 
if many should acknowledge themselves converts to 
his doctrine, and should practise upon it in numerous 
instances, it is probable that considerable fermen- 
tation would be produced. If all were of the same 
mind, no excitement would be produced ; but there 
are opposite principles among us, derived from the 
Word, and existing in the forms of civil law, and a 
common sense of justice. The supposed false prin- 
ciple would come into collision with these ; and the 
combat between them is what we should call fermen- 
tation. 

Now, what would probably be the effect of having 



PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 143 

our whole population thoroughly stirred up on this 
subject ? "Would not many a man be led to talk 
thus within himself ? " I see that this doctrine is false 
and wicked. It must arise from selfish loves, and 
not from love of the neighbor. No man who loved 
his neighbor as himself, and wished to do as he 
would be done unto, would claim the right of cheat- 
ing. But there is, indeed, a great deal of this 
doctrine prevalent among us ; and I must even 
acknowledge that I find more of it in myself than I 
could have believed there was before I was thus led 
to reflect upon it. Many persons, and myself among 
the rest, who are called honest men, have been in the 
habit of saying that a thing is worth what it will 
fetch ; and we have generally got all we could, 
especially of strangers whose complaints would not 
affect our reputation ; and even with our neighbors 
we have sometimes tried to get rather the best end 
of a bargain. I do not see, therefore, but that we 
have all held the doctrine, that it is right to cheat. 
The difference between us and this new sect is, that 
we have held the doctrine more prudently than they 
do. But such a doctrine must not be tolerated. 
Every principle of justice forbids it. And, while we 
oppose it in others, we must take heed to put it away 
from our own conduct." 

Is it not quite obvious that the teaching of such a 
doctrine would bring all the truths of justice, which 
men now have, into a more active state ? Would 
not these truths contend against such a falsity, and 
produce a fermentation ? And would not the effect 
be to dislodge the same falsity from many minds 



144 PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 

where it had secretly remained ? And would not 
the community be purified by this disagreeable fer- 
mentation ? 

Something of this kind always takes place when 
any kind of reformation is effected in human socie- 
ties. It is so in the natural or civil degree, and it 
is so in the church or the spiritual degree. 

When a member of a church is guilty of any 
wrong, and justifies it, and contends for his right 
to do it, this false principle, which is from his evil, 
and by which he defends his evil, is leaven among 
the meal, or falsity among the truths of the church. 
An effervescence is produced. Truths oppose the 
falsity ; and accompanying the truth there is zeal, 
and with the falsity there is anger : hence there is 
heat on both sides. 

If the members of the church reflect wisely, they 
will see that the leaven which is set at work among 
them is not limited to him by whom the offence 
came ; and they will take heed to purge it away 
from themselves, while they oppose it in him. They 
will see that the same false principle has been opera- 
tive in them, and they will regard this fermentation 
as permitted for the purpose of manifesting and 
removing the common evil and falsity. 

In some cases, both in civil and in ecclesiastical 
society, the persons by whom such leaven is intro- 
duced are as much benefited by the fermentation as 
any others. Truths in themselves, aided by the 
truths of their brethren, overcome their falsities ; and 
these fall down as sediment, and leave truths purified 
and strengthened as good wine. But there are other 



PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 145 

cases, in which men cleave to their false principles, 
and must necessarily be removed from the society, 
together with their falsities. 

There are many who have a wrong kind of aver- 
sion to such fermentations. They seem to take it 
for granted, that all wars and commotions are, on 
the whole, injurious in their moral effects. But this 
does not agree with what the Lord teaches. He 
came to cast fire into the earth, and to bring divi- 
sion. His truth does not rest quiet, and let evil and 
false principles reign. He taught that these fer- 
mentations were necessary for the purification of the 
minds of men from false principles. 

And, when these occur, every one ought to be 
benefited by them ; and every one ought therefore 
to have so much to do Avith them as is necessary for 
putting away the false principles from his own mind, 
and helping to put them away from the community. 
By saying that he will have nothing to do with such 
things, a man may check the proper operation of 
truths in his own mind, and fail of being purified 
from the very falsity which causes the contention 
that he so much bemoans. Still it is to be con- 
sidered, that the duties of men are different in these 
cases. No exact rules can be prescribed ; great 
freedom must be allowed. And, in the exercise of 
this freedom, their conduct will show whether they 
really cleave to the true or the false. 

It is often the case that such fermentations separate 
persons who had been apparently very near to each 
other ; but the fermentation does not produce the 
separating principle : it only develops it. If they had 

13 



146 PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 

been truly in agreement, they could not have dis- 
agreed respecting the leavening falsity. The result 
of the fermentation shows who ally themselves to the 
falsity ; and it must not be thought strange, if some 
sympathize with it who were not suspected. " Be- 
ware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, 
which is hypocrisy." 

It is said in the text, that a woman took the leaven, 
and hid it in the meal. The term " woman " is 
obviously used in its bad sense, and signifies evil. 
We have seen that the falsities meant by leaven are 
falsities of evil. 

When such falsity is introduced, the pretence is 
that it is truth, and that it is from love of the neigh- 
bor. This is meant by her " hiding " it in the 
meal : there is an effort to hide its true character, by 
mixing it with truths, and passing it off as one of 
them. 

" All these things Jesus spake to the multitudes in 
parables, and without a parable He spake not unto 
them. That it might be fulfilled which was declared 
by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in 
parables ; I will utter things which have been hidden 
from the foundation of the world." 

The reason why the Lord spake these things to 
the Jews in parables has been explained in former 
discourses. They could not be permitted to under- 
stand the truths contained in these parables, because 
they would profane them. He gave some explana- 
tions to His disciples, — all that they could bear, — as 
an assurance that these parables contained heavenly 
wisdom, which should be revealed to those who 



PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 147 

became His true disciples. Thus it is said in the 
next verse : — 

" Then, dismissing the multitudes, Jesus came into 
the house ; and His disciples came to Him, saying, 
Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field." 
Then follows the explanation, on which we remarked 
in a former discourse. 

By the multitudes who were sent away are meant 
the things of the natural mind. In order to under- 
stand the parables, men must put away or at rest 
their external thoughts and affections, and come into 
an internal, spiritual state of mind ; and this is meant 
by sending the multitudes away, and entering into a 
house. It appears as if the Lord sent the multitudes 
away and entered into a house that He might explain 
these things ; but spiritually it means, that man needs 
to send the multitudes away and come into a house, 
that he may be in a state to understand them. There 
are few in whose minds there are not a multitude of 
such worldly things as must be dismissed before the 
spiritual truths of these parables can be well or 
safely received. 

It is said that Jesus spake these things in parables, 
" that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the 
prophet, I will open my mouth in parables ; I will 
utter things which have been hidden from the foun- 
dation of the world." 

The only passage resembling this in the Old Tes- 
tament is the second and third verses of the seventy- 
eighth Psalm : "I will open my mouth in a parable ; 
I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard 
and known, and our fathers have told us." The 



148 PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 

Psalm then proceeds to recount the leading and 
most striking events in the history of the Israelites. 
They are not secret or dark things, according to the 
common meaning of the terms ; for they are the most 
prominent historical facts recorded in the Old Testa- 
ment. 

Can any one imagine why the recital of these 
things is called a parable, except that they are mere 
representatives of spiritual truths ? And how was 
the Lord's teaching in parables a fulfilment of this 
declaration in the Psalm, except as His parables 
contain an internal history of the church on earth, 
and a description of the work of man's regeneration, 
which are also contained in that Psalm ? 

Those who confine themselves to the literal sense 
will find it impossible to reconcile these two passages 
with each other, or to make the sense of either of 
them consistent with obvious facts. 

Taking these parables in their literal sense, or in 
any sense that men allow them, how is it true that the 
things here spoken had been kept secret from the 
foundation of the world ? But we may see how this 
is true, when we consider the spiritual meaning of 
the parables. They give a description of man's 
regeneration, — of such regeneration as was ren- 
dered possible to be effected, and possible for man 
to understand, when the Lord had glorified His Hu- 
manity. Before that glorification, this regeneration 
would not have been effected, and a spiritual descrip- 
tion of it could not have been understood. The 
most ancient church, which was a heavenly church, 
had no need of such regeneration. The people were 



PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 149 

not so depraved as to need it. And, for the same 
reason, their understandings did not come down to 
the sphere in which this regeneration is performed ; 
and therefore they could not understand it. 

Succeeding ages which needed such regeneration 
could not understand it well, because it could not 
then be fully effected. The work of redemption and 
the glorification of the Lord's Humanity were neces- 
sary first to be performed. While performing these 
works, He could teach how man must be regener- 
ated ; and men then began to acquire a capacity to 
understand it. How slowly they have gained this 
knowledge may appear from the ignorance prevailing 
even to this day in respect to the meaning of these 
parables. 

The internal sense of the Old Testament, indeed, 
teaches constantly concerning regeneration ; but the 
truths respecting it were hidden, even from the foun- 
dation of the world. Men did not understand them. 
Though the truths of the Old Testament which 
described regeneration were literally common histo- 
rical truths, which the Jews could say they knew, 
and their fathers had told them, yet they are declared 
to be "dark sayings of old;" — dark sayings, be- 
cause their meaning was unknown ; of old, because 
they were expressed in the ancient style in which 
spiritual things were described by natural. 

We see, therefore, that the Lord did strictly fulfil 
the words of that Psalm, by teaching the spiritual 
truths contained in these parables ; but, without refer- 
ence to the spiritual meaning of both the Psalm and 
the parables, no such fulfilment can be discovered. 

13* 



150 



PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 



To every candid person it must be obvious, that 
the true spiritual meaning of most of the parables 
has not been understood in the Christian church. 
Their meaning has been almost as perfectly hidden 
as if the Lord had not uttered them. And when we 
say that their meaning has now been revealed, and 
that we teach it, let it not be supposed that any more 
than what is comparatively a very little of their 
meaning is yet revealed, nor that we understtnd 
more than a little of what is revealed, nor that we 
teach in these discourses any more than a little of 
what we understand ; and it is quite possible that 
some, even of this very little, is not made intelligible 
to others. But, if we mistake not, enough of the 
meaning of several parables has been manifested to 
render them very instructive in the things which 
concern religious life ; and this was never done out 
of the New Church. The things they contain have 
been hidden from the foundation of the world. 

Men of the Christian church have not applied 
themselves to learning the meaning of the Word, 
with intent to do it. It is, indeed, essential to know 
what to believe ; but why is this so important ? For 
no other reason than that they may know how to 
live. But men of the Christian church have gener- 
ally separated faith from charity, doctrine from life. 
They have thought that the main object was to learn 
what to believe. They have not kept in mind the 
final end, the end or use of right belief, viz. good 
life. They have no spiritual end in view in studying 
the Word, except obtaining correct faith. 

When men read the Word in this manner, the 



PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 151 

internals of the mind are closed. The internal sight 
is not opened into the light of heaven, except when 
we read the Word with the sincere intention of 
learning its truths that we may do them. It is then 
only that we are in a state to have the Lord expound 
to us His parables. 

Those who read merely to learn what to believe, 
do not see the truths of the Word as now proceeding 
from the Lord. The question with them is rather, 
ining in old times ? than, What 
As their minds are not turned 
to present duty, they are not turned to the Lord as 
now present and now manifested. They think of 
Him as distant, and as manifested to other men, and 
in times past. So also they think of Him, not as 
teaching now, and they inquire not what He now 
means, as speaking to them ; but they think of Him 
as speaking long ago, and inquire what He meant in 
what He then said to others. 

How obvious it is, that men have been and are in 
the habit of looking back to the first ages of Chris- 
tianity, with the idea, that, if they can learn that 
sense of the Lord's words which applied directly to 
the state of those to whom they were first addressed, 
they shall obtain the true meaning applicable to 
themselves ! And, for the same reason, they are 
very desirous of learning how those whom the Lord 
taught personally, and those who lived near that 
period, understood His words. They think that the 
meaning then received must be the true meaning. 

But, if men went to the Word to know what is 
true that they might do it, they would see that the 



152 PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 

Lord reveals its truths now as really as He ever 
revealed them, — as really as when the words were 
first spoken or written. They would think of the 
Word, not as having been spoken to others in time 
past, but as now spoken to them. They would soon 
learn, that the Word has degrees and varieties of 
truth adapted to all men in all ages and conditions ; 
and that they ought not to seek for that meaning of 
the Word which was adapted to, and received by, 
the Jews, but that which is adapted to themselves. 
They would find that the Word is the Divine Truth, 
in the broadest and fullest sense of the term ; that 
it is the light of the spiritual Sun, and that it con- 
tains all the degrees and varieties of that light. 
Then it would seem to them as foolish to inquire 
what rays of this light the Jews or other ancients 
received and walked by, as it would to inquire what 
rays of the natural sun they received and walked by. 
We may not well know what clouds exhaled from 
their evils and falsities, and intercepted and obscured 
the rays of the spiritual Sun ; and, if we did know 
them, it would not be our duty to place them before 
our eyes, to make our vision like theirs. 

We have the same Sun that they had, and have 
all the means for seeing its light that they had. The 
light Avhich they received is not assigned as our 
measure. We are to turn our faces to the Sun, and 
not to dim planets and comets of ancient or modern 
times. 

The literal truths of the Word were as vails, cov- 
erings, or clouds, to moderate and almost conceal 
the light of the Word, lest men should profane it, 



PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN. 153 

while they sought only to know what to believe, and 
not how to live. But to those who will become of 
the Lord's New Church by uniting faith and charity, 
He unveils His face, or the internal sense of the 
Word, and it shines as the Sun ; and His raiment, 
or the external truths, are white as the light. 



154 



SERMON XII. 



THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 
Matt. xiii. 44. — again-, the kingdom of the heavens is like a 

TREASURE HIDDEN IN A FIELD, -WHICH A MAN FINDING HIDETH, 
AND, FOR JOY THEREOF, GOETH A.VTA.Y, AND SELLETH ALL THAT 
HE HATH, AND BUYETH THAT FIELD. 

In the most general sense of this text, it teaches the 
uses of knowledge. Nothing becomes valuable to 
us, until we know that it exists, and where and how 
it may be obtained, and how it may be applied to 
useful purposes. Truth alone tells all this : hence 
the importance of truth. But truth may exist with- 
out our knowing it, and then it is useless : hence 
the importance of knowledge. 

What are called the mechanical powers exist in 
the very constitution of nature among the most igno- 
rant nations, as fully as among the most civilized. 
But, with them, the truths which teach the existence, 
applications, and uses of these powers, are unknown ; 
they are a treasure hidden, or of which they are 
ignorant ; and, without knowledge of these truths, 
the mechanical powers and their uses are as if they 
were not. 



THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 155 

Among the aborigines of America, iron existed in 
great abundance ; but, being a grade lower in intel- 
lect than the truths to which iron corresponds, the 
truths which reveal its uses were concealed from 
them, and iron remained a treasure hidden in the 
field. 

A little reflection will show, that the goods or uses 
of iron are in the truths which teach that it is, what 
are its properties or powers, and how to apply it to 
its proper purposes ; and that the goods or uses 
become ours, only by our acquiring these truths, 
and acting according to them. The first thing is to 
know the truths ; for, while they are hidden, all 
which they teach, all the good that is in them, is also 
hidden. To be without knowledge of the truth is 
therefore to have the whole treasure hidden. 

The divine truth of the Word, with the divine good 
in it, is particularly meant by the treasure hid in a 
field. By the field is signified the church and its 
doctrine. This field was laid out by the Lord when 
He was in the world. He placed the Word in it. 
He sowed good seed in it ; but men have slept, and 
an enemy has sown tares. These having sprung 
up, and men having cultivated them and neglected 
the wheat, they have become so dense a covering as 
to conceal the heavenly treasure. It is now a treas- 
ure hid in a field. 

Its existence has recently been revealed ; but only 
a few care for it. Many have become so enamored 
of treasures on earth, that the treasure of the king- 
dom of the heavens seems unworthy their attention. 
It, therefore, still remains to nearly all persons as 



156 THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 

hidden ; for its value is appreciated by only a few 
of those to whom its existence is known. 

We speak of the Word as unknown, and as having 
long remained unknown, because its truths have 
not been, and are not, understood. Most of them 
are not seen to have any useful meaning ; and the 
rest, because they are in some degree seen to teach 
a life which men do not love to live, are not consid- 
ered worth buying. 

The field or church containing the Word is valua- 
ble on account of this treasure ; and those who find 
not or prize not the treasure pass by this field, with- 
out remarking its value. They think of it only as 
of a common field, unless they know the treasure it 
contains ; and many Avho know something of its 
treasure esteem the field as vile and unprofitable, 
because it yields not the productions of selfish and 
worldly life. 

When a natural man finds a treasure of natural 
wealth hid in a field, he hides or conceals it, lest it 
should be taken or destroyed by those who are 
opposed to his interests ; and he goes and sells all 
that he has, that he may become able to buy that 
field. 

This describes how men should do, when they 
learn the truth of the Word ; but most persons who 
are informed of this treasure do far otherwise. The 
natural treasure is sure to be agreeable to the natural 
man, and he will therefore make the sacrifices 
requisite for obtaining it ; but this spiritual treasure 
is despised by most of those to whom it is made 
known, and they will not sell all they have to 



THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 157 

obtain it. We say, therefore, that this parable de- 
scribes not what most men do in respect to this 
treasure, but what they ought to do, and what they 
must do in order to come into possession of the field 
or kingdom of God, which contains this treasure, and 
of which this treasure is the value and life. 

The text speaks of buying the field ; and the field 
means the kingdom of God, or the church in heaven 
and earth. The kingdom of God, or the kingdom 
of the heavens, is compared in the text to the treas- 
ure, and not the field ; because the value of the field 
depends wholly on the treasure. - The church and 
heaven are nothing, except from the goods and truths 
of the Word. These are the essential life of heaven 
and the church, and properly constitute heaven in 
angels, and the church in men. He who buys the 
field buys the treasure, and thus receives the king- 
dom of the heavens. 

But what can be meant by buying this field ? 
What does man, in respect to obtaining the church 
or heaven, that corresponds to selling all he has, and 
giving away, and buying a field ? 

In order that this may be understood, we must 
carefully observe that no class of men are properly 
the church ; but good and truth in men from the 
Lord constitute the church. A man truly becomes 
a member of the church, only by becoming a recip- 
ient of good and truth from the Lord, and a medium 
of them to others. He receives the kingdom of God 
in the same manner ; for the church is the kingdom 
of God on earth. He enters into heaven in the same 
manner. Good and truth constitute heaven, as they 

14 



158 



THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 



constitute the church ; and to enter into heaven or 
the church is to have heaven or the church enter into 
man ; and to have heaven or the church enter into 
man is to have good and truth enter into him, and 
become the living and controlling principles of his 
life, — to have them to become his life, so that they 
are indeed the man. 

This explanation takes off much of the strange- 
ness of the idea of man's buying the field, which 
means the church ; and the rest of the singularity 
of this idea may be imputed to our ignorance, and 
want of habit, in what relates to obtaining the king- 
dom of God. We are not willing to believe that 
the church or heaven is to be bought ; we are not 
willing to make the requisite sacrifice for obtaining 
it. But, before we have finished this subject, we 
may make it plainer that man buys the field. 

The field is the church — the kingdom of the 
heavens — containing the goods and truths of the 
Word, which is the treasure spoken of in the text. 
What does man give for this field ? What has he 
with which he can buy it ? 

He has a selfish, evil heart. He has self-intelli- 
gence. He has the various evils and falsities which 
are the offspring of his depraved will and under- 
standing. 

Can he sell these for any thing that is truly valu- 
able ? Yes : he can sell them for the goods and 
truths which constitute eternal life. Who will buy 
them ? He who has eternal life to give. Of what 
use can they be to Him ? Of no personal use : He 
does not appropriate them. But He is infinitely 



THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 159 

tinlike selfish men, who have respect only to their 
own interest. He buys only for the good of the 
seller, and He gives what is of inestimable value. 
He gives not sparingly, but gives all that the seller 
will receive. 

If any man, therefore, have evil and false princi- 
ples, let him sell them. They are not useful to keep, 
but only to put away. Indeed, the more he has of 
them, the poorer he is ; but the more he parts with, 
the richer he becomes. 

There is only one to whom he can sell them : the 
Lord alone can take them away. He may impart 
them to others, but they cannot dispossess him of 
them. The more he imparts to others, the more he 
still has. Others may receive his evils and falses, 
but cannot take them from him : the Lord can take 
them away, without receiving them. 

Men cannot have the field, without buying it in 
this manner. The church, which is the field, is com- 
monly thought of naturally as consisting of a society 
of persons ; and then it appears as if the church 
received or obtained certain individuals as additions 
to its number. But, when we think spiritually, it 
appears that each individual receives and obtains the 
church, rather than the church the individual. Each 
one must receive into his own mind the goods and 
truths which are the life of the church ; and this 
alone can constitute him a member of the church. 
He therefore receives the church more properly than 
the church receives him. And his obtaining it on the 
condition of selling, or renouncing and putting away, 
his evils and falsities, is called buying it. 



160 THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 

In this wonderful manner is a spiritual meaning 
contained within the natural language of the Word. 

However incredible the statement may appear to 
those who wisely estimate the goods and truths of 
ihe treasure hid in the field, and the worthlessness 
and essential damage of man's evils and falsities, yet 
it is not more astonishing than true, that many men at 
this day think they should make a bad bargain by 
selling all they have, and buying that field. They 
prize more highly the evils and falsities of selfish and 
worldly life, than the goods and truths of eternal life. 
They therefore turn away from this field, as worth 
less than its market price. 

A few stand and gaze upon it, and think they 
shall buy it at some future period ; but, for the 
present, they desire to keep the evils which are the 
price thereof. They do not well consider, that evils 
which are kept are indulged, and that evils increase 
by indulgence ; and that the field which now seems 
a scanty and doubtful compensation for them will 
fall in apparent value by the delay. The evils and 
falsities will become apparently more valuable by 
their increase, and their increase impairs the capac- 
ity for regarding the field as valuable. 

Many persons, on account of bad education and 
natural dulness, are slow to understand how they 
may put away sin, and receive eternal life. They 
are capable of making natural bargains ; but, when 
they are told the principles of spiritual traffic, they 
do not comprehend them. It is, therefore, necessary 
to be more particular in this matter. 

We cannot all at once buy the field : we cannot 



THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 161 

by any single act, nor by the acts of a single day 
nor any short period, sell all that we have. This 
means, that we cannot, by any sudden and short 
work, put away all our evils and falsities, and come 
into such a state of mind that the goods and truths 
of the church can flow in abundantly, and become 
our life. We cannot receive the church or kingdom 
of God any farther than we have removed our natu- 
ral evils and falsities. We must first sell what we 
have, and then we can buy the field ; and we can 
buy of the field only in proportion as we have sold 
our former possessions. 

He who has sold nothing, or has not seriously 
commenced putting away evil as sin against God, is 
not aware how much he has to sell. It is not popu- 
lar to manifest extreme wickedness before the world. 
Truth has some power to deter men from acting out 
their selfish and worldly loves : it places so great a 
restraint upon them, that they generally try to appear 
better than they are. Fear of punishment, of the 
loss of reputation, and of loss of property, operate so 
powerfully to deter men from open crimes, that few 
can know many of their own evils. They are little 
accustomed to look within ; they are inclined to think 
as favorably as possible of themselves ; and few 
acquire the ability to see much as evil in themselves, 
unless it comes forth into gross expressions. These 
and other reasons operate to make men ignorant 
how much they have to sell. They generally think 
they have but few evils. 

Many persons will think this statement does not 
apply to them. They are in the habit of confess- 



162 THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 

ing lhat they are very evil ; that they are guilty of 
many and great sins; that their hearts are exceed- 
ingly sinful. They think they know how evil they 
are ; and they will not believe that they have much, 
if any, more evil than they see and confess. 

But these are the persons who say, " Lord, Lord," 
but do not the things which He says. They make 
profuse confessions of evil, because they wish to 
have credit for a disposition to remove it ; but their 
secret disposition is to retain and indulge it. Al- 
though they speak thus of themselves, they expect 
others to think and speak of them as uncommonly 
good ; or, at least, that others will think them a great 
deal better than they profess to be, and the better for 
professing to be so evil. They Avill be greatly offended 
if others speak of them as they do of themselves. 

Whether their confessions of evil are sincere may 
be best determined by observing whether they en- 
deavor to shun the evils which they confess. If one 
tells you that he is conscious that he ought to keep 
the Sabbath holy, and that his habit of attending to 
secular labor on that day closes his mind against 
spiritual truth, and abates its power over him, — if 
he confesses this, and then goes back to his old habit 
of profaning that holy day, he is not to be supposed 
honest in his confession. Similar remarks apply to 
other cases. Our confessions are good only when 
they are accompanied by a genuine effort to shun 
the evils we confess ; and then they are not general, 
but relate only to such evils as we distinctly see, 
and are humbly endeavoring to remove. 



THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 163 

evil they have to put away ; and the amount of their 
evil possessions cannot be ascertained while they 
have them stored away to keep, but only when 
they loosen, explore, and remove them to sell them. 
And this must be done by little and little. 

To-day Ave perceive some evil affection, with its 
falsities, seeking to turn us away from what we know 
to be duty. One evil rises up in one of us, and 
another in another ; and there is probably no one of 
us who may not, if he is watchful, discover, more 
than once a day, that some evil is excited within 
him. 

Now, whatever the evil may be which at any time 
we discover, our duty is to look at it steadfastly, and 
examine and explore it, and sell it. Alienate it ; give 
it up absolutely and unconditionally ; give a perfect 
quit-claim of all interest in it. Do this because the 
Lord requires it, and because it is wicked and abom- 
inable for us to retain an evil, after we discover it, 
and know it to be evil. 

It requires some resolution and some struggle to 
do this ; but the Lord really bears the whole burden 
of it, and we need not complain of weakness when 
we act in His strength. 

Merely resolving to put away any evil will not, 
however, remove it : we must act as well as resolve ; 
we must afterward shun it. And the main resolu- 
tion and struggle are required, not when we are 
thinking that we will put it away, but when we per- 
ceive it active in the mind, and we refuse to indulge 
it, and turn and act directly opposite to it, with a 
sincere determination to do it no more. 



164 THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 

This is selling it ; and the field, with its treasure, 
immediately begins to become ours. Something of 
the life of the church immediately flows into our 
minds, something of the kingdom of God is formed 
within us. If we observe carefully, we can perceive 
that, when we thus sell an evil, we feel that its power 
in us is abated, if not wholly gone. We feel relieved 
from its dominion. And we can also perceive that 
something new has come into the mind. We have 
a new regard for the Lord and the Word and the 
church. There is a general elevation of our views 
of spiritual good and truth. But, particularly, we 
see in new light, and feel with new warmth, the 
truth and good which are directly opposite to the evil 
we have removed. Who ever left off drunkenness, 
swearing, or any other sin, without seeing far more 
clearly than ever before the truths which teach that 
it is sin, and teach the good of temperance, honoring 
the name of the Lord, or whatever the opposite good 
might be ? And who ever failed of feeling some 
delight and happiness in the new affections which 
flowed in, after removing the affection for any evil ? 

The truths which are then seen, and the good 
which is then enjoyed, are from the treasure in the 
field ; and this shows that we come into possession 
of the field and its treasure, in some degree, when 
we put away any evil. 

He who sincerely endeavors to put away any one 
evil, because he sees it to be sin against God, will not 
wilfully retain and indulge other evils. He may, for 
selfish and worldly reasons, leave off drunkenness, 
swearing, or any other external vice, — that is, he 



THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 165 

may leave off indulging them externally, — and yet 
retain the habit of stealing or of committing adultery. 
But, if he breaks off any evil habit because it is sin, 
it will enable him to see his other evils more clearly, 
and make him feel that it is his duty to shun them 
also. 

While man goes on indulging every evil to which 
he is inclined, or indulging some, and shunning 
others for reasons of selfish and worldly interest, he 
is a merely natural man ; and such a man is spirit- 
ually asleep. His spiritual sight is closed. Spiritual 
truths do not give light in his mind to enable him to 
see whether what he does is good or evil : at least it 
may be said, that he sees but seldom, and then 
dimly. 

And when he who is thus asleep is in the full 
indulgence of some evils, others must rest : they 
cannot all be equally operative at the same time. 
But it does not follow, because some are quiescent, 
that he has any more ability to see others as evils, 
nor any more inclination to shun them. And the 
same is true when he shuns any one for selfish and 
worldly reasons. This does not awaken him to see 
others, nor prompt him to shun others, any further 
than selfish policy dictates. 

But to shun any one evil as sin against God — to 
shun it because the Lord's truth forbids it — breaks 
a man's spiritual sleep ; it awakens him into some 
degree of spiritual light. It enables him to see other 
evils also, and to see them as sins against God. 
Especially it enables him to see those which are of 
the same class, or from the same root, with that 



166 THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 

which he has shunned. And he feels under the same 
obligations to shun them all, as to shun the one which 
he has already resisted. There is in this respect an 
essential difference between the effect of shunning 
any evil because it is sin, and shunning it for the 
sake of any selfish and worldly interest. And, by 
due attention to this distinction, Ave may be often 
assisted in judging whether we shun any evil because 
it is sin. 

He who begins to sell his evils in the manner here 
described will go on selling each one when he dis- 
covers it. He will soon learn, however, that he has 
a great many more than he had ever supposed ; and 
that their magnitude, and their power in him, and his 
love for them, are far greater than he had imagined. 
But these discoveries are for the sake of inducing 
him more zealously and faithfully to sell them. They 
are not designed to oppress and discourage him. If 
they humble him, and make him more sensible that 
the Lord alone has power to remove them, it is all 
well ; for the evils cannot be well removed in our 
name, but only in the name of the Lord. 

Even when man is honest and faithful in endeavor- 
ing to sell all that he has, he will frequently find evils 
returning which he had endeavored to remove. They 
may indeed arise in the mind a thousand times, when 
they have been a thousand times denied and put 
away, as sins against God. 

But they do not come each time in the same form, 
and accompanied by the same circumstances; and 
we have not each time the same principles operative 
in our minds to remove them. It is very important 



THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 167 

to our spiritual welfare that our evils should be pre- 
sented to us, and shunned, in all the varieties of form 
and quality in which they exist in the mind. And, 
as the good and true principles by which we oppose 
them are appropriated, and become living and eter- 
nal principles in us, it must be very useful to have 
all the forms and varieties of these implanted, which 
we acquire by shunning evils so many times and in 
so great varieties of form and quality. Every time 
we shun them, we receive more of the field and its 
treasure. 

Man's general evils are but two, — the love of self, 
and the love of the world. From these, as parents, 
proceed an innumerable progeny. Many of them 
have so much resemblance to each other, that we, 
whose spiritual sight is dim, cannot distinguish them. 
A great host of them are seen merely as self-love, or 
as a less general evil, — for example, as hatred or 
adultery. The Lord distinguishes these evils in 
their most minute forms ; and His truths relate to 
them, and are adapted to put them away in every 
variety. 

We ought not to say, when an evil returns which 
we have honestly shunned, that it is the same evil. 
It is a particular variety or form of that evil ; and, if 
we honestly shunned one form of it, it is not likely 
that we shall object to shunning another. It is not 
hard and unpleasant to shun what we do not love ; 
and when we have ceased to love and tolerate every 
form of our evils, — when we have sold all that we 
have, — they will trouble us no more. 

Though man can sell what he has, only slowly, 



168 THH TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 

and thus buy the field slowly, yet he must never 
think there is any excuse for delaying to sell any 
evil that he knows within himself. The Lord will 
manifest to him each evil, and the various forms of 
each evil, when he is able to renounce them. To 
show them to him more rapidly, would destroy his 
free agency. And the fact, that we are permitted at 
any time to see in ourselves an evil, is proof that 
at that time the Lord gives us ability to sell it, 
and that we can then, by selling it, receive more of 
the field and its treasure. 

As man cannot come into possession of the field 
except by slow degrees, as he sells his own posses- 
sions, it is very obvious that he should not wait for 
full possession of the field before he acknowledges it 
as the true object and end of all his hopes and 
labors. He should not decline and delay coming 
into possession of any part, because he cannot now 
have the whole. This means that he should not 
delay to acknowledge the church as the mother of 
all spiritual life. He should not w r ait for evidence 
within himself that he has received all the goods and 
truths which are the life of the church, before he can 
possess any of these goods and truths. He should 
confess them as fast as he receives them ; and thus 
he will receive the church within himself more and 
more every day, and join the church more and more 
every day. He might as well say that he would put 
away none of his evils till he had evidence that he 
had put them all away, and would receive nothing 
of the kingdom of the heavens till he had evidence 
that he had received all things belonging to it, as to 



THE TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. 



169 



say that he will not become a member of the church 
in any degree until he has evidence that he is fully 
prepared to live according to its doctrines. The 
cases are the same ; for externally joining the 
church, and performing the duties of a member of 
the church, is only an ultimate expression of man's 
efforts to sell all he has, and buy the field. 

He who does not endeavor to sell or put away 
his own evils and falsities cannot be poor enough to 
receive the treasure hid in the field ; but, in pro- 
portion as he sells them, he may externally and 
internally receive the field and its treasure. " Bless- 
ed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of 
the heavens." 



170 



SERMON XIII. 



THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 
Matt. xiii. 45, 46. — again, the kingdom of the heavens ia 

LIKE UNTO A MAN, A MERCHANT, SEEKING BEAUTIFUL PEARLS J 
WHO, FINDING ONE PEARL EXCEEDINGLY PRECIOUS, WENT AH D 
SOLD ALL THAT HE HAD, AND BOUGHT IT. 

Pearls correspond to knowledges of truths, and, in 
the abstract sense, to truths themselves. Merchants 
are those who collect truths from the Word, and use 
them for obtaining good, and also impart them to 
others that they may do the same. To him who 
imparts to others his knowledge of good and truth, 
the Lord gives more knowledge ; so that he receives 
a reward, although he does not give for the reward. 
Sometimes he is rewarded by receiving knowledges 
from those to whom he imparts. But even if they 
are poor in these things, and cannot recompense him, 
yet he is recompensed in the resurrection of the just. 
His affections of good or justice are increased by the 
exercise of imparting truths to those who are spirit- 
ually poor ; thus, his principles of justice are exalted, 
or have a resurrection. And this resurrection, or 
elevation of the just principles in his own mind, 
makes him receptive of more truths from the Lord ; 



THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 171 

for truth flows in wherever there is good to re- 
ceive it. 

This shows how a spiritual merchant acquires his 
riches, and what use he makes of them. 

Pearls correspond to truths of an external order, 
such as are in the literal sense of the Word. They 
are obtained from oysters, which are of the lowest 
order of animals. That they correspond to external 
or introductory truths, may appear from its being 
said that the gates of the Holy City were of pearls ; 
for gates are for introduction and entrance into more 
interior things ; and the gates of the city signify 
the external truths of the Word, by which men are 
introduced into the internal truths and goods of the 
church. 

He in whose mind the kingdom of the heavens 
is forming is constantly in search of knowledges 
of good and truth. He desires to know good and 
truth, that he may do them ; and, as he desires to do 
them, he also desires others to do them ; and there- 
fore he trades with all that he obtains, or imparts, 
and receives more. Thus he is a merchant. 

He who reads the Word to obtain such knowledges 
of good and truth, and endeavors to use them to 
increase the spiritual riches of others, is sure to find 
the one pearl exceedingly precious. This pearl is 
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as the true 
God and eternal life. He obtains this knowledge, 
or knowledge that the Lord is Good and Truth, and 
that all good and truth are from Him, not by any 
such sudden change of the mind as many have 
imagined ; but he obtains it slowly and gradually. 



172 THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 

There is a certain condition annexed to his receiving 
this knowledge ; and he can receive it only in pro- 
portion as he complies with that condition. 

To buy this pearl, man must sell all that he has ; 
and he comes into possession of it only in proportion 
as he sells all that he has. This does not mean that 
he must reject, or throw away, all the other knowl- 
edges he has of truth and good, but that he must 
put away all his evils and falsities. Before he 
obtains this pearl, he is in the habit of regarding 
truths as his own intelligence, and of calling all the 
good his own which he has in his affections, and 
does to others. And he must put away this false- 
hood and injustice, by which he ascribes to himself 
what belongs to the Lord alone. All this is meant 
by selling all he has. These things he truly has ; 
they are in him as a part of himself; they are con- 
stituents of his own life. But whatever of good and 
truth are in him, before he finds and buys the one 
pearl, is not truly his ; and it cannot be said that he 
truly has it. It is another's ; and it cannot become 
his, or a part of his life, till he ascribes it to the Lord, 
and ceases to call it his own. 

Finding the one pearl consists in knowing the 
truth that all good and truth are of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and are the Lord's own life present with 
man. Every one knows, or may know, that he is 
naturally prone to call his own all the good and 
truth that are in him, and that proceed from him. 
When he reads the Word and collects truths, and 
then looks at them in his own mind, he calls them 
his own wisdom. He also prides himself in such 



THE MERCHANT SEEKING TEARLS. 173 

possessions ; and, when he communicates them, he 
desires honor, or some other reward ; he desires 
others to think that the truths were his. 

The case is the same in respect to the truths which 
he obtains by other means, and also with respect to 
all the good which he has and does. He sees not 
the Lord in it ; he sees it not as from the Lord ; he 
acknowledges it not as the Lord's. 

To buy the one pearl, or acquire the knowledge 
that all good and truth are the Lord's, does not 
mean merely learning it as a matter of fact : it does 
not mean simply knowing that the Word teaches 
that it is so. It means knowing and acknowledging 
it practically and habitually. It means so knowing 
this truth as the mind knows the truth which it does. 
It means so knowing it, that the mind actually 
ascribes all the good and truth it receives to the 
Lord, and constantly looks to Him alone for good 
and truth. 

This true knowledge of the Lord also implies 
seeing and acknowledging all good and truth in the 
"Word. The Word is the Lord's truth : it is all 
the truth He reveals, or can reveal, to us. It con- 
tains truths of every order and variety, adapted to 
every state of man and angel. And every degree of 
good which man or angel has, or can have, is in the 
truths of the Word. The good is in the truth, as 
heat is in light ; and he who receives the truth into 
his understanding, and by it puts away his own evils, 
receives into his will the good of the truth. 

The good and truth thus received from the Word 
are all that any one has. If you have now any thing 
15* 



174 THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 

of good and truth in you, you acquired them in this 
manner. And the good and truth thus received are 
all of the Lord that is present with any one, or is 
imparted to any one. These, therefore, are to be 
acknowledged, not merely as from the Lord, but as 
being truly the Lord with us. They are His life, — 
His flesh and His blood given us, that we may eat 
and drink them, and have eternal life. 

To find the Lord in this manner in His Word is 
to find the one pearl exceedingly precious. And 
how plain it is, that man cannot obtain this pearl 
without selling all he hath, and that he can do this 
but slowly and gradually ! It is the work of his 
whole life, on earth and in heaven, to sell all he hath, 
and buy the one pearl. He can procure it no faster 
than he acquires knowledge of divine truth ; and 
does the truth, not as his own, but as the Lord's. 

In the first degrees of the work of regeneration, 
man does not distinctly see why it is very important 
to find this one pearl. He does not see what effect 
it has to ascribe all truth to the Lord, and do it as 
the Lord's. It seems to him sufficient to know and 
do the truth ; and he sees good and truth as separate 
from the Lord. The one pearl is among those which 
he daily collects from the Word ; but he does not 
distinguish it : he does not see that it is exceedingly 
precious. 

Still he sees the pearl : he sees that the Lord 
Jesus Christ is declared to be the Way, the Truth, 
and the. Life ; that all good and truth are ascribed to 
Him, and that man is required to acknowledge Him 
in all. He also sees that he is commanded to sell 



THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 175 



the Lord's disciple in no other way. And, so far as 
he complies with this direction, he finds that the one 
pearl brightens, and he begins to regard it as more 
precious. Then he goes on selling more, and the 
value of the pearl continually increases. 

As he advances, he discovers what at first seems 
very strange, that there is somewhat of this one pearl 
in all the pearls : every truth seems to partake of this 
greatest truth, and indeed to be derived from it ; and 
therefore the knowledge of each truth is seen to par- 
take of the knowledge of this, and to be derived from 
it. He sees this at first but dimly ; but afterward it 
becomes clear and certain, and he sees why it is so. 
He sees that the Lord is present in every truth. He 
had formerly supposed that only a few truths in the 
Word taught concerning the Lord ; but now he sees, 
that, although a great part of the truths teach exter- 
nally concerning men, they all internally teach 
concerning the Lord. When the mind is truly 
opened to see as the truth is designed to make him 
see, then man sees, not only whither each truth goes, 
but whence it comes. He sees upward as well as 
downward. Each truth is then seen as requiring the 
acknowledgment of the Lord, as man's first and 
inmost duty. 

When man arrives at this state, he would as soon 
think at noon-day of ascribing the rays of light to 
some other source than the sun, as of ascribing any 
truth to any other than the Lord. And as he would 
not say, " There is light because the sun once did 
shine," but " because it now shines ; " so he would 



176 THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 

not say, " These things are true because the Lord 
spake them," but " because the Lord speaks them." 

When man has become accustomed to see every 
truth as now from the Lord, and to see the Lord, 
and acknowledge, worship, and serve Him in every 
truth that he learns, he is prepared for another great 
change ; and this is the last general change which his 
mind undergoes in the process of regeneration. 

He ceases to regard truth principally in reading 
the Word, and in seeing the Lord in the Word. He 
has respect to good more than to truth. He does 
not lose any of his regard for truth ; and the light in 
his mind is not diminished, but greatly increased. 
Still, his regard for good becomes greater than his 
regard for truth. With him the heat of the Word 
predominates. 

In the former state he saw the Lord in every truth 
of the Word ; now he not only sees, but feels Him. 
The Lord has now become, not only his light, but 
his life ; and his love of the Lord preponderates over 
his faith in the Lord. Both his love and his faith are 
from the Lord, and so he acknowledges them. 

Before this change, the Word seemed to be the 
light of life ; now it is seen as itself living, and giving 
life ; and as he sees it, so it is to him. To him the 
Word is made flesh ; and it dwells or abides in him 
as his life, even life eternal. 

These statements have been made, that the manner 
in which the one pearl is found, and how it becomes 
exceedingly precious, may be distinctly seen. And, 
if this is understood, the mind will reject the common 



THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 177 

They who suppose that in a day or minute they 
sell all they have, know nothing of this difficult work. 

When, from sickness, alarm, or any strong power 
of persuasion, the operation of evil affections is sus- 
pended, hopes of heaven and fears of hell may be 
excited in many persons to almost any degree ; and 
the mind may be so directed and controlled as^o 
seize on any thing that is called a protecting arm. 
While the delusion lasts, there may be external tran- 
quillity ; and, if the understanding be kept bound by 
false faith, the mind may never be able to see that 
all this is but the mimicry of religion. 

But, if the mind be turned by the Divine mercy to 
the duty of keeping the commandments, it soon ap- 
pears that the whole duty of renouncing self, and 
buying the one pearl, is still to be performed. 

A more distinct idea of the meaning of the text 
may be obtained from the following beautiful extract 
from Swedenborg concerning the gates of the Holy 
City, New Jerusalem. We will first remark, that, 
when these gates are mentioned, every one ought 
to think of the means of entrance into the true 
church. 

" ' And the twelve gates were twelve pearls : every 
one of the gates was of one pearl.' This signifies, 
that the acknowledgment and knowledge of the 
Lord conjoins into one all the knowledges of truth 
and good which are derived from the Word, and 
introduced into the church. By the twelve gates 
are signified the knowledges in chief of truth and 
good by which man is introduced into the church : by 
twelve pearls is also signified the knowledges in chief 



178 THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 

of truth and good : hence it was that the gates were 
pearls. The reason why each of the gates was of one 
pearl is because all the knowledges of truth and good, 
which are signified by gates and by pearls, have rela- 
tion to one knowledge, which is their continent : which 
one knowledge is the knowledge of the Lord. It is 
called one knowledge, although there are several 
which constitute that one knowledge ; for the know- 
ledge of the Lord is the universal of all things of 
doctrine, and thence of all things of the church : 
from it all worship derives its life and soul ; for the 
Lord is all in all in heaven and the church, and 
thence all in all in worship. The reason w r hy the 
acknowledgment and knowledge of the Lord con- 
joins into one all the knowledges of truth and good 
from the Word, is because there is a connection of 
all spiritual truths ; and, if you are disposed to be- 
lieve it, their connection is like the connection of all 
the members, viscera, and organs of the body. 
Wherefore, as the soul contains all these in their 
order and connection, so that they are felt no other- 
wise than as one, so, in like manner, the Lord 
contains or holds together all spiritual truths in man. 
That the Lord is the very gate by which men are to 
enter into the church, and thence into heaven, He 
Himself teaches in John : ' I am the door : by me, if 
any man enter in, he shall be saved.' And that the 
acknowledgment and knowledge of Him is the pearl 
of great price, is meant by these words of the Lord 
in Matthew : ' The kingdom of the heavens is like 
unto a man, a merchant, seeking beautiful pearls ; 
who, when he found one pearl of great price, went 



THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 179 

and sold all that he had, and bought it.' The one 
pearl of great price is the acknowledgment and 
knowledge of the Lord." A. R. 916. 

It is important to observe, that what is described 
in this parable concerning the finding of the one 
pearl follows the discovery and acknowledgment 
that the Word has an internal sense. This parable 
immediately follows that concerning the treasure hid 
in a field, and by that treasure was meant the inter- 
nal sense of the Word. 

When man has discovered that treasure, and is 
endeavoring to sell all that he has to buy it, he be- 
comes a merchant-man seeking beautiful pearls. 
The truths of the Word begin to shine from their in- 
ternal light, and to appear of great value. Not all of 
them appear luminous ; but among the literal truths 
he finds many of which he can in some degree see 
the internal sense, and they are as beautiful pearls. 

Before man has any belief that the Word has an 
internal sense, its truths present no such appearance. 
Occasionally, indeed, a ray of heavenly light may be 
received from them ; for every man who has not 
become inordinately depraved has some remains of 
reverence for the Word as holy and divine. But, 
ordinarily, those who admit not that the Word has 
an internal sense are in such darkness that they see 
no more internal degrees of truth in the Word than 
in other books. Most of its truths appear totally 
dark ; and those in which any light is seen are re- 
garded as but half-decayed fragments of the glory of 
the Lord which appeared in former days. These 
they endeavor to polish with their own wisdom ; and 



ISO THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 

then they call them their own, and use them as their 
own. 

In such a state, man cannot discover the one pearl 
exceedingly precious. He must first acknowledge 
the Word to be Divine, and endeavor to put away 
or sell all in himself that prevents his finding its 
treasures. Then he will begin to see its truths as 
pearls, and will discover the one pearl exceedingly 
precious ; and it will seem to be within every other 
pearl, and to be the essence of all the pearls. He 
will then see more than ever the need of selling all 
he has. He will see new degrees of evil and falsity 
in himself ; and the work of selling all will assume a 
new aspect : it will appear to be a much greater 
work. 

Men are commanded, in the very first state of re- 
generation, to forsake all ; and some think they have 
done it when they have only corrected a few external 
evil habits, and turned their minds to new modes of 
obtaining their selfish ends. And, in all cases, man 
seems to himself to have performed the duty of 
forsaking all more fully in the first stages of regene- 
ration than in later states. In each successive state 
the command is repeated, as the condition of receiv- 
ing the goods and truths of that state. And this 
Word of the Lord abideth for ever ; for even the 
celestial angels advance in good and truth, only by 
putting off more and more fully, and removing far- 
ther and farther, all that is of self. 

There are many kinds and degrees of self-denial 
and self-punishment ; but most of them have selfish 
and worldly ends in view. The miser may starve 



THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 181 

himself and his family, because the love of money 
controls all other loves. The Pharisee may fast 
twice in a week, pay tithes of all he possesses, and 
make long prayers, for no other end than to appear 
righteous unto men. Examples of this kind might 
be multiplied indefinitely. 

Now, it is very certain, that, when men restrain 
some evil loves for the sake of gratifying others 
which are stronger, there is no true self-denial. We 
truly sell what we have, only when we renounce and 
remove our evils and falsities because they are op- 
posed to the Word of the Lord. 

We ought to see and acknowledge as an import- 
ant truth of doctrine, that selling all we have and 
buying the treasure hid in the field, and the pearl of 
great price, go together. Those who truly deny self 
do it in obedience to the Word ; and such obedience 
exalts the Word in the mind, and opens the internal 
eyes to see in the light of heaven the hidden treasure 
of the Word. And it has the same effect in respect 
to revealing and giving the one pearl, — the knowl- 
edge and acknowledgment of the Lord ; for just in 
proportion as self is abased, the Lord is exalted. 

Whatever appearances of self-renunciation men 
may assume, they must be false in all cases when 
they are not accompanied by finding and buying the 
treasure hid in the field, and the one pearl exceed- 
ingly precious. The knowledge and acknowledg- 
ment of the holiness of the Word, and the divinity 
of the Lord's Humanity, as certainly and neces- 
sarily accompany genuine self-denial, or shunning 
evil as sin, as the increase of light and heat accom- 

16 



182 THE MERCHANT SEEKING PEARLS. 

pany the removal of clouds from before the face of 
the sun. 

In this we may see how essentially united are the 
three great doctrines of the NeAv Jerusalem : that 
the Lord Jesus Christ is the One only God ; that 
His "Word is Divine ; that, in order to be saved, man 
must shun evil as sin, and do good according to the 
Word. He who has true faith in either of these 
doctrines has faith in them all, and he who denies 
one denies them all. 



183 



SEEM ON XIV. 



THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 
Matt. xiii. 47 — 50. — again, the kingdom of the heavens is 

LIKE UNTO A NET CAST INTO THE SEA, AND BRINGING TOGETHER 
OF EVERT KIND ; WHICH, WHEN IT WAS FULL, THEV DREW TO 
THE SHORE, AND, SITTING DOWN, GATHERED THE GOOD INTO VES- 
SELS, AND CAST THE BAD AWAY. SO SHALL IT BE IN THE 
CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE : THE ANGELS SHALL COME FORTH, 
AND SHALL SEVER THE EVIL FROM THE MIDST OF THE JUST, 
AND SHALL CAST THEM INTO THE FURNACE OF FIRE : THERE 
SHALL BE WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH. 

This text relates to the two classes of natural men. 
Those who are but little acquainted with the truths 
of the New Church may suppose, that all natural 
men are evil ; but they will find, by a further exami- 
nation of the writings of Swedenborg, that he divides 
natural men into two classes, — the good and the 
evil. 

There are three heavens, — the celestial, the spir- 
itual, and the natural. Corresponding to these there 
are three classes of men in the church. These three 
classes in heaven and the church receive three differ- 
ent kinds or degrees of good and truth. 

A great many among the heathen are natural good 
men. Their minds are very little enlightened by 



184 THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 

spiritual truths. Most of them know that there is a 
God, that there is a heaven, and a hell; and they 
have such common truths as the Ten Commandments, 
to teach them the distinction between good and evil. 
They endeavor in some degree to observe these truths 
in their conduct with men ; but they think but little of 
the internal distinction and opposition between good 
and evil, and little of any thing except what belongs 
to this world. Yet, because they endeavor to shun 
such sins as they know are forbidden, and to lead 
friendly and useful lives with their neighbors, they 
are good men. Although they are of a low order, 
yet they love good rather than evil ; and hence they 
desire more light than they have, and can receive it, 
and walk in it, after death. 

Christians ought to be spiritual and celestial men. 
They have the Word ; and if they lived according to 
the truth that is revealed to them, even as well as 
many of the heathen live according to what is re- 
vealed to them, it would be obvious that their minds 
were opened into the light and heat of heaven, 
and that they were spiritual and celestial. But, at 
the present day, there are but very few good men 
who rise above the natural degree ; and some of 
these are not so good as the natural good men 
among the heathen. 

In speaking of men among Christians who are in 
natural good, we do not include those who are 
strongly confirmed in false doctrines, even if they 
are externally moral. Their false doctrines originate 
in natural evil, and are inconsistent with any genuine 
kind of good. We refer to a humble class of men 



THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 185 

and women, who enter but little into the false sys- 
tems of this day, but read the Word, and try to shun 
the evils which they see forbidden, and to treat their 
neighbors with kindness and justice, and to perform 
the common works of piety according to the order 
of the community in which they live. They inquire 
not into the deep things of faith. They do not ex- 
plore their own minds very deeply nor critically ; 
but they content themselves with an external degree 
of knowledge, and hence they learn and do but an 
external degree of good. 

Men generally know nothing of the three discrete 
degrees of good and truth. They see, indeed, that 
an act may have more or less good in it ; but they do 
not see that there are different orders or kingdoms of 
good, distinguished as the animal, the vegetable, and 
the mineral kingdoms in nature. And when they 
think of truths, they think very unwisely. They say 
that what is true is true, and cannot be more true. 
And, when they are told of different orders or degrees 
of truth, they are completely confounded. Yet they 
do sometimes distinguish between three orders of 
natural truth ; viz. moral or rational truths, which 
teach what is morally right or wrong ; political 
truths, which relate to the duties of men as they are 
affected by civil and social institutions ; and merely 
scientific truths, which relate to the qualities and 
operations of material things. 

These three kinds of truth relate to merely tem- 
poral and worldly life, with evil men ; but, with 
good men, they are made subservient to divine truth, 
and are applied to religious life. In general, we 

16* 



1S6 THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 

find that men know something of these three kinds 
of worldly truth, and also of the natural degree of 
divine truth ; and also that there are different degrees 
of clearness, certainty, and reality, in these four 
orders of truth. They do think that one order of the 
truths are more true than the others. 

Which of these orders of truths are generally 
considered the highest ? Which seem to men to 
shine with the clearest light ? Certainly the minds 
of men are inverted ; for they generally agree in 
regarding the lowest order of truths as the most real 
and unquestionable. That two and two make four, 
that trees grow, that waters run downward, and other 
truths obtained through the bodily senses, seem to 
nearly every man to be more certainly known, and 
to be more real, than that there is a God, that there is 
a heaven, and a hell. They are seen in what seems 
to men a far more perfect degree of light, than that 
in which they see any civil, moral, or religious duty. 
They would sooner doubt that murder, adultery, 
and lying are evil for them, than that gold is good 
for them. 

Some of these things have been said to prepare 
for the remark, that it is not easy to explain to natu- 
ral men the distinction between the three degrees of 
good, or the three kinds of men, — celestial, spiritual, 
and natural. We desire to show who are meant by 
natural good men ; and then every one can see who 
are natural evil men. With many we can, perhaps, 
do no better than to say that natural good men are 
such as the good men they are acquainted with ; 
for there are few of any other class of good men 



THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 187 

now on this earth ; and few have the capacity to 
distinguish between these and the higher orders, 
when they see them. 

There are, however, some who can see this subject 
in rational and also spiritual light ; and it may be 
useful to them to say, that the human mind is consti- 
tuted with three distinct stories or degrees. With 
most men at this day, only the lower story or degree 
is opened. Into that they receive the goods and 
truths of the literal sense of the Word, — some more, 
others less. These are natural good men, if they 
endeavor to live according to that external degree of 
truth ; they are natural evil men, if they follow their 
own intelligence, impelled by their own lusts, instead 
of the truth. 

The second degree of the mind is opened with 
spiritual men, and the third with celestial men ; and 
they receive the goods and truths of the Word in 
those degrees. Celestial men receive the three 
degrees of the good and truth of the Word, spiritual 
men two degrees, and natural men receive only the 
lowest degree. In the natural degree there are both 
good and evil, and innumerable varieties of each. 

The judgment executed at the consummation of 
the age, or end of the church, on natural men, both 
good and evil, is meant by this parable of the net 
cast into the sea. The judgment is performed in 
the world of spirits, where, for some time after death, 
the evil and the good dwell together as in this world. 
We refer to the two classes of natural men. Those 
who have become spiritual or celestial seldom re- 
main long in the world of spirits ; they are generally 



188 THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 

nearly prepared for heaven when they die. So, also, 
the worst among the evil, or rather those whose 
external life is the worst, are ready for judgment 
when they die. 

But there are great numbers of natural good men, 
who have so many evils and falsities attached to 
them, and so much worldliness and grossness of 
character, that they cannot be admitted into heaven 
till they have been vastated, or have had their 
wrong qualities separated from their best principles. 
Many also who are internally evil have something 
of good and truth in externals. Such is the case 
with a great part of the evil men, especially in civil- 
ized communities. The power of the civil law and 
of the customs of society, renders it good policy for 
evil men to live externally like good men ; and to 
so great a degree is this the case, that there are only 
a very small part of most communities, of whom we 
can decide with any degree of certainty, whether 
they are good or evil. 

With some evil men the cloak of good and truth 
which they wear is assumed from deliberate hypoc- 
risy ; but with others it is induced by the mode 
of their education from infancy. It is common 
for children to be taught to accomplish their selfish 
ends by words and actions, which, in their external 
form, are right and orderly ; and they practise in 
this manner when they become adults, with but little 
deliberate and intentional hypocrisy. 

Both the good and the evil whose external and 
internal qualities do not agree, remain in the Avorld 
of spirits until their externals are put off, and their 



THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 189 

internals are brought out distinctly into external life. 
Before the last judgment, many remained there for 
several ages ; but, since that period, none remain 
more than thirty years. 

These natural persons, collected in great numbers 
in the world of spirits, appear to the angels who look 
down upon them as seas or oceans. We are in- 
formed by Swedenborg, that the process of judging 
those who were there at the time of the last judg- 
ment appeared like collecting them with nets, and 
separating the good from the evil, and placing the 
good among their proper heavenly societies, and 
casting the evil into hell. And this is meant in the 
parable by casting a net into the sea, and gathering 
of every kind, and receiving the good into vessels, 
and casting the bad away. Seas have this meaning 
generally in the Word ; and for the same reason they 
signify the memory of man, in which all things that 
are received through the bodily senses, both bad and 
good, are stored up. And it is not difficult to see, 
that the kind of judgment here described is performed 
in the external mind of every man. The truths of 
his internal mind are the angels which descend. 
They take up and explore all things of the external 
mind, and separate between the evil and the good. 
It is by truth thus admitted into the mind, that men 
after death are made to reject Avhat is not in accord- 
ance with their ruling loves. The good put off their 
evils and falsities, and the evil their goods and 
truths. 

What has been said shows what is meant by the 
sea in this text from the Revelation : " The former 



190 THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 

heaven and the former earth were passed away, and 
the sea was no more." By the former heavens are 
meant the artificial heavens, or religious establish- 
ments of those who had an external regard for 
religion, but were internally evil ; and by the earth 
is meant the same class of people with respect to 
their external or civil establishments. By the sea 
is meant the natural class of men, of the lower order, 
already described. They also were there collected, 
and were judged as has been stated ; and then the 
sea was no more. 

It is to be observed, that the seas which appear in 
the spiritual world are not material, nor are they 
permanent. They appear and disappear as the 
people are changed. The waters of the sea corres- 
pond to natural truth, — the lowest kind of natural 
truth or scientific truth. Those who are in this 
truth, and have no higher degree of life, correspond 
to fishes. And where such persons are collected in 
the world of spirits, there appear seas, because these 
correspond to the kind of truth in which they live. 

It is from this lowest or scientific state that all 
men are to be redeemed. The knowledge which 
they acquire in childhood is of this character, and 
their life at first is of this ultimate degree. For this 
reason the Lord chose His apostles from among 
fishermen, who correspond to those who receive and 
instruct in rational and spiritual truth. They were to 
instruct in all degrees of truth, above the scientific ; 
and hence they were to reform men of all classes. 
Spiritual truths are signified by men ; and hence it 
was said to them, " Ye shall catch men." 



THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 191 

To understand what is meant by casting a net into 
the sea, and catching fish, will require considerable 
attention. 

In the cases mentioned in the Word, this process 
of fishing means, literally, fishing with a net from a 
ship. The sea means the general sphere or world 
of those who are in mere natural science. The 
fishes mean the persons, and also those things of the 
human mind, which are in this sea. A ship signi- 
fies doctrine. The process of fishing with a net 
corresponds to instructing and reforming those who 
are in such an external life ; but how it corresponds 
is not to be seen without some consideration. 

When we catch fishes, we take them up out of 
their natural element or world into the air. They 
cannot live there. We do not take them up to have 
them live and grow as fishes ; but we take them that 
they may become food, or give nourishment, to 
beings of a higher order. Some of them, however, 
are bad, and are thrown away. 

Now, place before the mind a natural man, and 
also a suitable person to instruct him in spiritual 
things, and you will see a process like fishing. The 
teacher casts forth his net, or certain truths so united 
and arranged as to enter into this man's mind, and 
collect and draw up some of his scientific principles 
into a spiritual sphere : he brings them up out of the 
sea into the air. 

This means the same as to elevate a man's thoughts 
and affections from natural things to spiritual. There 
is an internal degree to every one's mind, correspond- 
ing to the external degree as the air to the water. 



192 THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 

When we instruct men in spiritual things, we do not 
pour truths into their minds : we cast forth some- 
thing to raise up their natural principles into a 
spiritual sphere. 

While thus teaching, the minister stands in his 
doctrine : he fishes from a ship. He does not teach 
scattered and incoherent truths ; but, being in a 
certain doctrine, truths are put forth as a well-con- 
structed net. His doctrine is spiritual ; but it rests 
on natural truth, as the ship on the sea. 

When the fish has been raised into the air, it dies. 
Its own life, which constituted it a fish, ceases. The 
natural life of man's scientific principles is selfish and 
worldly. That must die, or be put off, when his 
natural principles are raised up, and become nourish- 
ment for spiritual life. Hence, when the teacher 
seeks to raise a man's thoughts and affections to 
spiritual things, he tells him that he must deny 
himself, or put away his natural life. 

And, when these scientifics are raised up to form 
bodies receptive of spiritual life, a careful work of 
sorting them is performed ; for many of them are 
false and evil, and must be rejected. But the order- 
ly scientifics are received, divested of their evil life, 
and become nourishment, and a body for the internal 
life. 

From this statement it will appear that fishing 
does not correspond to instructing men in scientific 
truth, but to such instruction as elevates them into 
spiritual life, and is accompanied with putting off the 
old man, and putting on the new man. 

A process like this is necessary in judging men in 



THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 193 

this world and the next. They must be raised up 
out of their natural state to see their true quality ; 
and then the good choose life, and the evil choose 
death. 

It is said that the angels shall sever the evil from 
the just, and cast them into a furnace of fire; there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

This is to be understood like Avhat is said of the 
net cast into the sea. It is not literally true, accord- 
ing as things are and appear in this world ; but they 
appear so in the spiritual world. The judgment of 
natural men, at the consummation of the age, actually 
appeared like casting a net into the sea, and gather- 
ing the good and the bad, and sorting them. So, 
also, the hells into which many of the evil are cast, 
actually appear like furnaces, chimneys, and lakes 
of fire. The term used in our text is said to mean 
chimney, rather than furnace. 

But it is not to be supposed, that there are material 
chimneys or lakes, nor such fire as burns material 
things. There are spiritual things corresponding to 
these, just as spiritual light corresponds to natural 
light. Spiritual heat with the good is their good 
loves, and with the evil it is their evil loves. The fire 
of the evil is such as constitutes their burning lusts 
and raging passions. 

The like is to be said of the gnashing of teeth. 
The contentions of the evil are often so heard in the 
other life. They have not material teeth ; all things 
with them are spiritual ; but they agree in appear- 
ance. Men and animals in this world sometimes 
gnash their teeth from anger, or a strong disposition 
17 



194 THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 

to injure others. The same passions are exercised 
in the spiritual world, and they appear in the same 
manner to those who see or hear them. 

If these remarks are understood, they will furnish 
a key to the meaning of a very extensive class of 
texts in the Word. Nothing is more common in the 
prophets than statements of facts which never oc- 
curred, and never can occur on this earth. Thus 
in the Revelation a great dragon is described, which 
elevated his tail to heaven, and thrust down the stars ; 
the heavens, earth, and sea are said to have passed 
away ; and many other things equally strange are 
recorded. In general, the descriptions of things in 
heaven, hell, and the world of spirits, are made by 
describing corresponding things, real or imaginary, 
on this earth. Thus, in describing hell, it is spoken 
of as a sea, a lake of fire and brimstone, a bottom- 
less pit, a furnace of fire, outer darkness with weeping 
and gnashing of teeth. These and other representa- 
tions of it are made according to the particular infer- 
nal principles which are treated of. 

The common question is, whether these things are 
to be understood literally. The answer is, Yes : 
they are exact descriptions of things as they exist 
and appear in the spiritual world. They are not to 
be understood as relating to this world, nor are such 
things material ; but such things exist and appear in 
the spiritual world, precisely as they are described 
in these strange and obscure passages of the Word. 

If any of the natural, scientific truths of your minds 
have now been elevated into a spiritual sphere, take 
heed that they do not return into the sea. Keep 



THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA. 195 

them in this elevated state, till they lose their natural, 
selfish, and worldly life. They are loath to part 
with this life ; they will struggle to return. They 
are slippery, and hard to retain in the air. But keep 
them there till their life has gone. Then divine 
truths in the internal mind will sort them, and receive 
the good into vessels, and they will themselves be- 
come vessels receptive of spiritual life ; and the bad 
they will cast away. 



196 



SERMON XV. 



THE SCRIBE INSTRUCTED INTO THE KINGDOM OF 
HEAVEN. 

Matt. xiii. 51, 52. — jesus saith to them, have ye understood 

ALL THESE THINGS ? THEY SAY UNTO HIM, YEA, LORD. THERE- 
FORE, THEN HE SAITH UNTO THEM, EVERY SCRIBE INSTRUCTED 
INTO THE KINGDOM OF THE HEAVENS IS LIKE INTO A MAN, A 
HOUSEHOLDER, WHO BRINGETH FORTH OUT OF HIS TREASURK 
THINGS NEW AND OLD. 

It will be observed, that, in the translation of the 
text here adopted, we read " instructed into the king- 
dom of the heavens,'''' instead of " instructed unto the 
kingdom of heaven.'''' In this and most other cases 
where the kingdom of heaven is mentioned in the 
common translation, it is the kingdom of the heavens 
in the original language. The translators did not 
know that there were three heavens, and that each 
of these is divided into many lesser heavens. If they 
had done their duty, and translated the expression 
literally, it would have made it easy for us to learn 
what is now revealed ; we should have seen that it 
accorded with what we had known from infancy, 
viz. that there were more heavens than one, — that 
in our Father's house are many mansions. 



THE SCRIBE INSTRUCTED. 197 

To say " instructed into the kingdom of the heav- 
ens " is an unusual mode of expression ; but it gives 
the sense of the passage more fully than any other 
which occurs to us. 

In the common translation, the parallel begins 
thus : " Therefore, every scribe instructed," &c. ; 
but the word therefore seems to belong to the pre- 
ceding verb, " Therefore he said unto them ; " and 
not, " Therefore is the kingdom of the heavens like 
a man, a householder." 

The term treasure means also a treasury or treasure- 
house. 

" Jesus saith to them, Have ye understood all 
these things ? They say unto Him, Yea, Lord." 

This question is addressed to those who are the 
Lord's disciples, — to those who learn of Him, and 
follow Him. All such are regenerated by Him ; He 
takes away their natural evils and falsities, and gives 
them good loves and truths as the active principles 
of their lives. 

The question is, whether they have understood all 
the seven preceding parables, — Of the Sower, of the 
Tares of the Field, of the Grain of Mustard-seed, of 
the Leaven, of the Treasure hid in the Field, of the 
Merchant - man seeking beautiful Pearls, and of 
the Net cast into the Sea. 

To understand these things means much more than 
merely seeing the truths taught in these parables ; 
but even seeing them distinctly, and knowing them 
as truths, is much more than any have done in the 
whole period of the Christian church. Men have 
supposed these parables contained truths ; but they 
17* 



198 



THE SCRIBE INSTRUCTED INTO 



have not seen and known what truths they con- 
tained. 

In the spiritual sense, understanding these things 
means not only perceiving their meaning internally, 
and rationally knowing them as truths, but also as- 
senting to them, and adopting them as principles of 
life. And, in order that they may become living 
principles of the mind, they must perform the works 
in the mind which are described in them. What is 
described in these parables must be done in man's 
mind, before the truths can acquire their proper life 
and power in him ; and it is only so far as the truths 
do this, that he can be said, in the heavenly sense, to 
understand them. A good understanding have all 
they that do these things, or in whom the divine 
truths do their proper work. 

The kingdom of the heavens, which is so often 
mentioned in these parables, means the reign or 
government of the heavens ; that is, the reign or rule 
of heavenly principles in the mind of one who is 
becoming regenerate. In man's natural state, selfish 
and worldly things reign : in order that he may 
become a child of God, heavenly truths and goods 
must be implanted or begotten, and must grow, and 
acquire strength, and become his ruling principles. 
What they do in the mind is their reign, government, 
dominion, or kingdom ; and these operations of 
divine truths in the mind to acquire dominion in it, 
and to reign over all evil and earthly things, are 
what are described in these parables ; and these are 
the reign or kingdom of the heavens. 

And, when divine truths have been sown in the 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 199 

mind, and have sprung up, and acquired power, and 
reigned so as to perform the things described in these 
parables, they have made him truly wise, — he truly 
understands them, — they have instructed him into 
the full reign or kingdom of the heavens. 

When the twelve apostles professed to understand 
what the Lord taught in these parables, they repre- 
sented those in whom the reign or kingdom of the 
heavens has come, or in whom such works of re- 
generation have been done as are described in 
those parables. Therefore the Lord said unto 
them, " Every scribe instructed into the kingdom 
of the heavens is like a man, a householder, who 
bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and 
old." 

The scribes among the Jews were their learned 
men. The art of printing was unknown, and these 
scribes or writers were the persons who copied the 
Scripture. Hence they became, in an external 
sense, learned in the Scripture ; and they were much 
employed to teach others. By literally writing the 
truths of the Word, these truths were stored in their 
external memory ; and this memory became a treas- 
ury, out of which they could bring them forth while 
teaching others. 

It is easy to see, that these scribes represented 
those who write the divine truths in their hearts by 
doing them. We do not mean that they were really 
like such persons as do the divine truths ; but their 
external manner of writing, and its effects, serve as 
types or external representatives of writing the divine 
truths in the internals of the mind, as internal princi- 



200 THE SCRIBE INSTRUCTED INTO 

pies of life, and then bringing them forth in words of 
wisdom and works of love. 

It is said of those who will become of the Lord's 
New Church, that He will put His law in their in- 
ward parts, and write it in their hearts. This is 
effected by their doing and teaching the divine 
truths, and not by any sudden and arbitrary opera- 
tion of the Holy Spirit. They are not only instructed 
by divine truths how they should live, and are thus 
made to know the kingdom of the heavens, but they 
understand them rationally, and do them freely ; and, 
what is far more, by doing the truths they receive the 
good of the truths, and thus receive them into the in- 
most degrees of their wills and understandings. Then 
their ruling loves are the loves of good and truth 
which they received in doing the truih ; and these 
loves, with the wisdom proceeding from them, are 
heaven ; and their reign, operation, or life, is the 
kingdom of the heavens. 

Then the kingdom of God is truly within them. 
They were first instructed concerning the kingdom 
of the heavens, and next instructed in it, and finally 
instructed into it ; or so instructed and led by the 
divine truths, that the life of the heavens became 
their life. This is meant by their having the law 
put into their inward parts, and written in their 
hearts ; and the same is meant by their being scribes 
instructed into the kingdom of the heavens. 

We are all scribes or writers. Every day we are 
writing something in the book of our lives. If we 
learn and do heavenly truths, we write them within 
our minds, and they become the written, established, 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 201 

permanent principles of our lives. If we store our 
minds with merely worldly knowledge, and regard 
its truths as our own intelligence, and write them by 
doing them with selfish and worldly loves, — then 
these become, not only the record of our past lives, 
but the laws of our future lives. 

Only a few at this day are instructed, or are will- 
ing to be instructed, into the kingdom of God. More 
are willing to be instructed concerning that kingdom. 
There is some love of knowledge, but little love of 
doing the truth. Many will learn it who will not 
write it, or who write it only like Jewish scribes., in 
the external memory. But they write something 
more internally. 

Consider the case of those who learn heavenly 
truths so that they understand what those truths 
teach them to do, and yet they turn away from the 
duty. Surely ihey do not write those truths within 
them as rules of life, but they write their refusal to 
obey them. They re-write the maxims of their self- 
intelligence, — the rules of their selfish and worldly 
policy. They may think, that, while they resolve 
to delay obedience to the truth, they still resolve to 
obey it at some future period. But they deceive 
themselves. Their resolution to delay is real, and 
they write it ; but their resolution to obey at a more 
suitable time is unreal, and they write it not. They 
will do according to what they have written : they will 
delay doing their duty. They will remain somewhat 
instructed concerning the kingdom of the heavens, 
but not instructed into it. They must write their 
resolution by doing their duty, before the Lord, the 



202 THE SCRIBE INSTRUCTED INTO 

angels, and the church, who acknowledge only reali- 
ties, can open the gates of the heavens. 

And why should we delay any known duty ? 
When the hour of death arrives, each one may say, 
" What I have written I have written." When we 
enter on the future life, every one will be judged out 
of the things written in his book ; every one accord- 
ing to his works. Not according to things which he 
had proposed to write ; not according to works 
which he had said that he resolved to do ; but he 
will be judged from the things verily written, — by 
works verily done. 

And we have no lease of the future : the present 
only is secured to us, as the day of preparation for 
heaven or hell. And as we improve the present, we 
do prepare for heaven or hell : we write our own 
sentence, and none shall reverse it. " The fool 
resolves and re-resolves, then dies the same. Be 
wise to-day : 'tis madness to defer. Procrastination 
is the thief of time." — " Watch, therefore ; for ye 
know not at what hour your Lord cometh." — 
" Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." 
Write not, I will delay my duty a little longer. 

Those things which man does are stored in his 
mind, and become his treasures. What he does, he 
is said to write, because doing it writes it in the book 
of his life. When man has received divine truths 
and done them until they have instructed him into 
the kingdom of the heavens, his mind has become a 
treasury of the heavenly principles of good and truth. 
These he will bring forth for ever in words of wis- 
dom and works of love. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 203 

The opposite result follows a life devoted to selfish 
and worldly interests. 

Of every scribe instructed into the kingdom of the 
heavens, it is said that he brings forth out of his 
treasure things new and old. He is conscious of 
receiving life, or good and truth, perpetually from 
the Lord. He imparts the good and truth which 
he perceives within himself, with a constant and 
distinct acknowledgment that they are not properly 
of himself, and his own, but are of the Lord, and are 
the Lord's. 

This acknowledgment is what keeps his mind in 
a perpetual state of reception, — a state adapted to 
receiving more and purer goods and truths. If he 
imparted any good or truth, and ascribed it to himself, 
he would lose as much as he imparted ; he would 
become poorer — his treasure would be diminished 
— in proportion as he brought any thing forth from 
it, calling it his own. But giving, or putting forth 
from his treasure, with an acknowledgment that 
what he gives is from the Lord and is the Lord's, 
causes him to receive even more than he imparts. 
His treasury is continually enlarged and replen- 
ished. 

Think of such a one in any state to which he 
attains. In that state he will put forth, or impart to 
others, the goods and truths which he is then receiv- 
ing, and also those which he received and wrote in 
his book in former states. Thus he will put forth 
things new and old. And whether he gives new or 
old, there is given to him all that he can receive. 
11 Give, and it shall be given to you : good measure, 



204 THE SCRIBE INSTRUCTED INTO 

pressed down, and shaken together, and running 
over, shall they give into your bosom ; for with the 
same measure that ye mete, it shall be measured to 
you again." 

That men are made spiritually poorer by impart- 
ing good and truth, when they ascribe them to 
themselves, is manifest from the fact, that what they 
call their own ceases to be good and true in them. 
Nothing which we receive from the Lord is to us 
good and true, any further than we acknowledge it 
to be the Lord's, and bring it forth with that ac- 
knowledgment. Hence, nothing is a spiritual bless- 
ing to us, — nothing blesses us, or gives us spiritual 
life, — any farther than we acknowledge that it is of 
the Lord and is the Lord's. By ascribing it to 
ourselves, we adulterate the good, and falsify the 
truth, and convert the blessing into a curse. 

During infancy and childhood, every person re- 
ceives many goods and truths, and acknowledges, 
according to his capacity, that they are from the 
Lord, or from parents and teachers who stand in the 
place of the Lord. The quality of this acknowl- 
edgment varies according to age and intelligence ; 
but, during the earliest years, if there is the least of 
distinct acknowledgment of the Source of good and 
truth, there likewise is the least of the sin of ascribing 
them to ourselves. 

In adult age, most men, and probably all, have 
some states in which they receive some good and 
truth with an acknowledgment that they are from 
the Lord. And this, added to what they received 
in infancy and childhood, constitutes their remains, 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 205 

which are their treasures. The good and truth 
which they ascribe to themselves, when they receive 
them, do not become a part of their spiritual treas- 
ure. 

Every thing good or true which any man imparts, 
he brings forth out of the treasure thus acquired in 
his mind ; and every new degree of good and truth 
which he receives is received into the treasury thus 
formed. When any of the remains of good or truth 
belonging to that treasure are brought into activity, 
that man may bring them forth in deed or word, if 
he looks at them within himself, and ascribes them 
to the Lord, and brings them forth with that ac- 
knowledgment, and continues to ascribe them to the 
Lord after putting them forth into deed and word, 
then these same goods and truths remain a part of 
his treasure, and they are purified and enlarged, and 
other goods and truths of like quality flow in from 
heaven, and are added to the treasure. But, if he 
ascribes these goods and truths to himself, when 
they are perceived in his mind, or after he has ex- 
pressed them, he thereby denies the Lord, and per- 
verts the good and the truth, and he loses them from 
his treasure. 

This shows how every one's treasure may be 
increased and perfected, or diminished and de- 
stroyed. And let it be remembered, that to destroy 
the remains of good and truth already stored in the 
mind is to destroy the capacity of receiving new 
kinds and degrees of good and truth : it is to destroy 
all capacity to receive the kingdom of God. 

Every scribe instructed into the kingdom of the 
18 



206 THE SCRIBE INSTRUCTED INTO 

heavens is said to be like a man, a householder. He 
is called a mem on account of the truths in his under- 
standing, and a householder on account of the goods 
in his will. These goods and truths are united : he 
united them by doing the truths, when he stored 
them in his treasury, or wrote them in his book. By 
the same process, his will and understanding became 
one treasury, and good and truth one treasure. 

In this treasury are goods and truths of different 
orders ; and, as he views them within himself, the 
more interior classes appear new, and the more 
exterior appear comparatively old. But he brings 
forth both, because some of his neighbors are in 
states which require the lower degrees, and some are 
capable of receiving the higher. He endeavors to 
put forth what will be most useful, — - to every one 
according to his several ability. 

It is common among men to regard those persons 
as benevolent who bring forth out of their treasure 
only old things, — only natural good and truth, or 
what are serviceable to worldly life. But it will 
come to pass in the New Church, that those only 
will be regarded as friends who endeavor to impart 
both spiritual and natural good. Those who become 
truly of that church will be very different from us ; 
for we often receive to our bosoms those who make 
no effort, and have no desire, that Ave should receive 
heavenly good and truth. We ally ourselves to 
those who would be unwilling that we should utter 
in their hearing the primary truths of heaven and the 
church. 

And, when we do so, Ave are not instates to bring 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 207 

forth out of our treasures things new and old. We 
content ourselves with teaching only old things ; and 
this not because they are unwilling to receive new, 
but because we then agree with them in choosing 
the old. If it were not so, we should not and could 
not choose their company, and become allied to 
them. We could put forth old things for their 
temporal good, without adopting their state and be- 
coming allied to them, and without disjoining new 
things and old. We have no duly to any person 
which requires us to come into a state in which nat- 
ural things rule ; and, if we keep spiritual things 
ruling, we shall never voluntarily place ourselves 
where we may not freely bring forth from our treas- 
ures things new and old, nor where we can receive 
only what is old. What is old, Avhen separated from 
what is new, becomes dead ; and, when we volun- 
tarily receive it, Ave appropriate spiritual death. 

When we separate natural good and truth from 
spiritual, and put forth only the natural, let us not 
imagine that we add to our spiritual treasure : we 
diminish it. And, if we desire to receive natural 
good without spiritual, we lay up treasures on the 
earth, and destroy our treasure in the heavens. 

The New Jerusalem does not come down from 
God out of heaven, where old things are preferred 
to new ; and, where it does descend, there is a new 
heaven and a new earth. 



208 



SERMON XVI. 



RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 

Matt. xiii. 53 — 58. — and it came to pass, when jesus had fin- 
ished THESE PARABLES, HE DEPARTED THENCE. AND, COMING 
INTO HIS OWN COUNTRY, HE TAUGHT THEM IN THEIR SYNAGOGUE, 
INSOMUCH THAT THEY WERE ASTONISHED, AND SAID, WHENCE 
HATH THIS MAN THIS WISDOM AND THESE POWERS ? IS NOT 
THIS THE CARPENTER'S SON ; IS NOT HIS MOTHER CALLED MARY ? 
AND HIS BRETHREN, JAMES AND JOSES AND SIMON AND JUDAS, 
AND HIS SISTERS, ARE THEY NOT ALL WITH US ? WHENCE, THEN, 
HATH HE ALL THESE THINGS ? AND THEY WERE SCANDALIZED 
ON ACCOUNT OF HIM. BUT JESUS SAID, A PROPHET IS NOT WITH- 
OUT HONOR, SAVE IN HIS OWN COUNTRY AND IN HIS OWN HOUSE. 
AND HE DID NOT MANY MIGHTY WORKS THERE, BECAUSE OF THEIR 
UNBELIEF. 

These are the concluding words of the chapter con- 
taining the eight parables which we have already 
explained. The last four of the parables are spoken 
of as having been taught in a house, and to the dis- 
ciples only. They consist of interior truths, which 
those alone can well comprehend, in whom several 
regenerating works have been wrought, and Avho 
have come into spiritual and celestial states of mind. 
The present text speaks of the Lord's instructions to 
those who had been acquainted with Him during all 
His life in the world. 



RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 209 

Remember that He was the Word or divine truth 
in an external human form. They had seen Him 
from infancy as another man ; and, to the idea of 
Him thus acquired, they could not superadd the idea 
that He was Immanuel. They were in the condition 
of those persons of the old church who have from 
infancy regarded the Word as containing only a 
literal sense. When these persons hear the wonder- 
ful truths now taught from the spiritual sense of the 
Word, they are scandalized ; and their reasonings to 
prove that the Word is like other books, containing 
only literal truths and corresponding affections, are 
like those of the Jews to prove that the Lord was 
like other men. 

The difference of state between this class of per- 
sons, and those who see the truths of the Word to be 
divine, is denoted by the Lord's departing from the 
house in which He taught the disciples, and coming 
into His own country. In the fifty-seventh verse it 
is said, "A prophet is not without honor, except in 
his own country and in his own house;' 1 '' that is, 
among his own family or kindred. 

Speaking spiritually, man's own country is his 
external understanding, and his own house is his ex- 
ternal will. In man's natural state, self-intelligence 
fills his understanding ; and self-love, his will. All 
that he receives he calls his own. He acknowledges 
nothing above himself; and when truth and good 
are seen descending from heaven, he is scandalized, 
and contends that they are like natural good and 
truth. 

That the Lord came into His own country, means 

18* 



210 RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 

the state of His truth where it is seen and regarded 
as merely natural truth, — as such truths as men 
call their own reason and their own understanding. 
The expression, His own country, relates spiritually 
to what the Jews thought, and not to what was 
internally true. They thought Him to be a mere 
man, and that Judea was His country, as they 
thought divine truth was merely human, and of the 
world. And what is here said of His coming into 
His own country has reference to the coming of His 
truth to those who call it their self-intelligence. 

The divine truth comes to persons in this state, 
and teaches them in their synagogue. Synagogues 
were the places of religious instruction among the 
Jews ; and hence, spiritually, a synagogue signifies 
doctrine. The doctrine here referred to is the doc- 
trine of such persons concerning the Sacred Scrip- 
ture, and this involves all other doctrine. We 
might with equal propriety say, that it is the doctrine 
concerning the Lord ; for those who regard the 
Lord as another man, or deny that he is the true 
God, also deny that the Word is divine. They 
cannot do otherwise than believe the Word to be of 
the same quality with the Lord the Saviour ; and 
if they make the one to be of their own country and 
their own house, so they do the other. 

The Word teaches all that it can teach, and the 
Lord does all the saving work He can do, even 
among this class of men. In those who deny that 
the Lord is God, and that His Word is divine, He 
cannot do many mighty works because of their 
infidelity ; but they see something of His works in 



RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 211 

others, and they cannot wholly exclude from their 
minds the idea which heaven and the church con- 
spire to produce in them, that the Word has a divine 
meaning, and the Lord a divine life, which their 
doctrine denies. The power of the Word affects 
even them so much, that they do not rest easy in 
their bed, — that is, in their doctrine. Their sleep 
is disturbed. They dream of assaults from mighty 
armies. Their darkness seems peopled with evil 
genii. 

Their uneasiness is manifested by a perpetual effort 
to prove that their doctrine is true, or that all true 
doctrines are false. The Word produces many 
effects which excite their astonishment ; and they 
deem it necessary to account for all that is done in 
them and in others, by extolling the dignity of hu- 
man nature, — by showing that man does the whole 
by his own reason, and not the Lord by his Word. 

When any thing of spiritual truth from the Word 
is taught among them, they are astonished, and say, 
Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty 
powers ? They have some perception that spiritual 
truths may be deduced from the Word ; and an 
effort is necessary to reason away the impression. 
And for this they are always ready ; for nothing is 
so destructive to all they hold dear, as the admis- 
sion that the Word has any more than a natural 
meaning. 

Hence they say, " Is not this the carpenter's son ? 
Is not His mother called Mary ? and His brethren, 
James and Joses and Simon and Judas, and His 
sisters, are they not all with us ? " Is not this truth 



212 RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 

from merely natural good, teaching how to do 
merely worldly good ? Is it not born of the love 
of worldly life ? Are not the good things which it 
teaches, and the affections of truth which it incul- 
cates, of the same quality with those which are 
common to selfish and worldly life ? 

They say all this from their doctrine and their 
common view of the Word. And, when they have 
reasoned thus, they are prepared to deny that it 
has any spiritual meaning. This is meant by their 
question, " Whence, then, hath it all these things ? " 
for this is meant as denial, and not as acknowledg- 
ment, that the Word has these things. 

The grand difficulty with these persons is, that 
they do not and will not acknowledge any truth 
above their reason or self-intelligence. It must all 
be of their own country. They will acknowledge 
Jesus to be the son of Joseph and Mary, and con- 
cede to Him all the wisdom and power that are 
consistent with this origin ; but they cannot admit 
that He is God-with-us, having all power in heaven 
and earth. 

Some of them have been so impressed with the 
Avonders of the Word, as manifested in the works of 
Swedenborg, that they have been almost ready to 
admit their reality, on one condition, viz. that they 
might ascribe them to Swedenborg, and not to the 
Lord. If they might ascribe the truths of the New 
Church to Swedenborg's own reason, then they 
would be the countrymen of their own self-intelli- 
gence, and might be applied in the same manner ; 
but if thev must be admitted to be of another country, 



RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 213 

even from heaven, they are our masters, and not our 
servants. But they find that the heavenly truths 
taught in these writings wholly refuse to be of their 
country and their house ; and therefore they reject 
them. 

That the divine truth cannot do many mighty 
works among people of this character is very ob- 
vious. They do not admit its authority over them, 
but only its equality with them ; and this acknow- 
ledgment of truth as an equal always has, concealed 
within it, such a denial of the sovereignty of divine 
truth as makes it a mere servant. And then it 
cannot operate over man and within him to perform 
its proper works. It cannot heal the sick, cleanse the 
lepers, cast out devils, nor raise the dead. It cannot 
even open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears 
of the deaf. It cannot truly begin the work of re- 
generation, because of their infidelity. 

All these remarks may be thought to apply very 
well to the Jews, and to some of our neighbors ; but, 
if we mistake not, they disclose the most prevalent 
sin among ourselves. We have had the Word with 
us from our earliest years as a familiar acquaintance. 
We have treated its truth as we have treated the 
rational truths of men. Most of us always believed 
that it contained more truth than any other book ; but 
none of us ever thought that it was the only fountain 
of truth. Recently we have become convinced, that 
it contains incomparably more truth than we formerly 
supposed ; but this does not imply that the Word has 
gained its proper place in our minds. 

Do we acknowledge and treat the Word as divine 



214 RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 

truth from God out of heaven, or do we make it 
to be of our own country ? It is quite time, my 
brethren, that we were able to give a favorable 
answer to this question. We have had instruction 
enough, so that no very scandalous deficiencies 
ought to appear, if our conduct in respect to com- 
mon religious duties be scrutinized. But how will 
it bear examination ? What will it tell in respect to 
our belief in the Word of God ? 

If the Word has acquired its proper rank in our 
minds, then it rules there as king, with undisputed 
dominion ; we yield to it full and implicit obedience. 
It is our one Master, the Christ ; and, when we 
know what it commands, we set up no opinion or 
principle of action against it, but proceed imme- 
diately to do it. 

The Word teaches that we ought to keep the 
Sabbath holy, and devote it to the spiritual duties of 
public and private worship, religious instruction and 
meditation, and works of spiritual charity. If any 
one who knows this devotes the holy time to secular 
labors, he acts against the Word. And, in that case, 
he makes something of his own self-intelligence the 
rule of his conduct. And the same is true when he 
is detained from public worship by a state of health 
or of the weather which would not prevent his expos- 
ing himself equally to perform the most important 
natural duties. When for trifling causes we can 
neglect our spiritual duties, we do not give to the 
divine truth its proper authority in our minds : we 
serve another master. 

The Word teaches the duty of receiving the sacra- 



RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 215 

ments of baptism and the holy supper. What can 
keep any one from them, but the operation of some- 
thing in the mind which has more authority there 
than the Word ? Many make the following acknowl- 
edgment : " I know that the Word teaches that this 
is my duty; but" — But what, my friend ? If you 
know it to be your duty, say no more. 

The Word teaches that it is our duty to sing 
praises unto the Lord, and pray unto him. If we 
voluntarily neglect these duties, something else be- 
sides the Word, and opposed to the Word, directs 
our conduct. 

These examples might be extended indefinitely ; 
and under each head some persons might find them- 
selves convicted of obeying some law opposed to the 
law of God. And this shows, that, when divine 
truths enter our minds, we treat them as we do the 
opinions of men. We place them on a level with 
our own opinions. Sometimes we do them, and 
sometimes we lay them aside in the mind, and con- 
clude to do some other things first. We set our own 
reason above them, and make it the judge whether 
and when, and how far, it is best to do them. We 
make them to be of our own country and our own 
house, and therefore they receive no true honor. 
We treat them as on a level with our own opinions, 
and as if they were to be done only when we have 
adopted them as our opinions. Even when we 
acknowledge them to be the best things that we can 
do, we reserve to ourselves the right and liberty of 
doing or not doing them, and of choosing our own 
time and mode of doing them. Thus, before doing 



216 RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 

them, we appropriate them as our own self-intelli- 
gence, and then Ave do not obey them as the Lord's 
commandments. 

When the kingdom of God is established within 
us, it will no longer be doubtful, when a truth is 
clearly taught, whether it will be obeyed. It will be 
done so far as it is understood. A teacher will not 
need to teach the same degree of any truth many 
times to the same persons. Having made one 
degree of any truth intelligible, he may rest assured 
it will immediately be done, and may proceed to 
other truths, or to higher degrees of the same. 

The case is now different. That a truth has been 
plainly taught, and has been seen and acknowledged 
to be a truth, affords little ground of confidence that 
it will be obeyed. It must be repeated ; and the 
repetition often produces vexation, and sometimes 
enmity. It may be useful to explain why persons 
are apt to be displeased, when truths which have not 
been done are often repeated. 

When Ave hear a truth and understand it, and 
receive it into remains of good Avhich had been 
stored in the mind, then the affections of those 
remains lead us to do it ; and, Avhen Ave have done 
it, those remains are confirmed as our OAvn active 
principles, and the good which Avas in the truth is 
also received, and becomes a part of our love. All 
the good Avhich is thus received loves the truth by 
Avhich it Avas received ; and, if that truth be preached 
a thousand times, the mind has delight in hearing it, 
and embraces it as a tried and faithful friend. 

But Avhen a truth is taught and understood, and 



RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 217 

some of our evils and falsities are permitted to rise 
up and cast it down among the external things of 
our own country and our own house, and Ave refuse 
to do it, and proceed to do what is opposed to it, — 
then we receive, increase, and confirm the evil op- 
posed to that truth, as we acquire and confirm good 
by doing it. And, after we have thus rejected and 
cast down the truth, if the preacher repeats it, and 
endeavors to raise it up to its proper authority in the 
mind, the evils and falsities which had cast it down 
are displeased. Their government is invaded; and, 
in their defence, they make us say that we knew that 
truth well enough before, and there was no occasion 
for repeating it ; that it is infringing on our freedom 
to press it upon us ; and they cause us to contend 
that it ought not to have any more power in the 
mind than we please to give it. 

No teacher can be long tolerated, and the truth 
which he teaches cannot do many mighty works, 
where the people thus receive it as of their own 
country and their own house. Even if many truths 
are learned and done, and thereby much good is 
received, yet, if there are a few plain truths which 
many do not endeavor to do, the repetition of them 
will produce soreness and vexation of mind ; and all 
other truths will operate with far less power in the 
mind, and give far less good, than if these few were 
obeyed. The evils and falsities which control the 
mind so far as to make it refuse or delay to obey 
these few known truths, will raise up evil thoughts 
and feelings against any teacher who holds them up 
as mocked, scourged, and crucified divine truths. 

19 



218 RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 

Even if they make great efforts to bear with his 
preaching, and to think favorably of it, and to profit 
by many things it imparts, they are every moment in 
danger of being scandalized, while they claim the 
right to refuse or delay obedience to any truth which 
they see to be a truth, and to cast it down from the 
sovereign authority which it asserts, and call it of 
their own country and their own house. 

When Pilate said to Jesus, " Knowest thou not 
that I have power to crucify thee, and have power 
to release thee ? Jesus answered, Thou couldst have 
no power against me, except it were given thee from 
above." The case is the same with those who claim 
the right or power to do as they please with the 
divine truth when it is preached to them. The Lord 
Himself gave Pilate this power, that he might act as 
a free agent in his treatment of the Lord. But Pilate 
was accountable for his use of this power, and he 
could not innocently employ it in crucifying the 
Lord. 

When a truth is communicated to us, we feel that 
we have power to do with it as we please. We 
regard that power as inherent in ourselves, and think 
that, as it is ours, we may use it as we please. We 
say Ave have a right to use it as we please, and we 
mean that we may do so innocently. But this is a 
fearful mistake. It is the truth itself that gives us all 
the power we have to do or to reject the truth. The 
truth itself gives us power to treat the truth as free 
agents ; and we are responsible for our use of this 
power. As Pilate could not innocently employ his 
power against the Lord, no more can we innocently 



RECEPTION OF TRUTH WITH THE NATURAL. 219 

employ ours against the truth. The cases are abso- 
lutely the same. Every man has within his own 
mind a Pilate ; and, when we reason in favor of our 
right to treat the truth as we please, we should give 
Pilate credit for our argument. 

Truth comes to us as our sovereign and our God. 
It concedes not that we have any right but what it 
gives us ; and that is only the right of doing what 
it teaches. 

The truth can perform its proper works in us and 
by us, only so far as we submit all things in our own 
minds to its authority, and obey it, — only so far as 
we forsake all, and follow it. It cannot acknowledge 
our sovereignty over it, even when we threaten to 
crucify it. It does, indeed, give us power to treat it 
as Ave will ; but, if we debase it to the level of things 
in our own country and our own house, it will not 
do many mighty works there, because of our un- 
belief. 









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